


Nothing Says "Soulmates" More Than Sharing a Soul

by MerakiMela



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Aged Up, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fenton and Phantom are separate entities sort of, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Senior year, Soulmates, brief mentions of traumatic pain, mentions ADHD, mentions Dissociative Identity Disorder, mentions medication, pitchpearl, split personality but not really
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:53:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 49,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24180013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MerakiMela/pseuds/MerakiMela
Summary: Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom. Danny Phantom is Danny Fenton. But what if it didn't stay that way?
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson, Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom
Comments: 71
Kudos: 205





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Had the most random urge to write a Pitch Pearl fic. Have I ever written a Danny Phantom fic before? NOPE! Have I even watched the show in years? NOPE! Will I watch the show to try to write the characters accurately? Probably not?
> 
> Regardless, I hope you enjoy the story :)

_Nothing._

_Nothing **forever**._

_That’s what this place felt like._

_Alone._

_Not always. But, when you look upon an expanse of nothing from far back enough, anything can become a speck in the distance._

_That was a feeling he knew didn’t come from him, that he had found here. From someone else who had been here before. Someone who was lonely too, who watched beings move past until they were specks, only then lamenting that they did not choose to linger closer._

_He didn’t understand. Why did this being not just move forward too? Forward was where others were. Others that could be talked to, held, loved…and in turn talk, hold, and love back. Thinking of such possibilities made him feel warm. He didn’t have a name for it, but he knew this warm feeling did come from himself._

_So he knew what he was going to do. He was going to move forward, as fast as he could. It felt amazing. He laughed as another warm feeling filled him. Why did the other being choose to float in nothingness? Why float when you can **fly**? _

_So he flew and laughed._

_Sometimes, he’d pass another being. They rarely looked like they felt warm feelings. He smiled at each one, hoping to pass on the warmth. When they smiled back he felt…good. Yes, that’s what it was. **Good**. When they snarled or hissed at him it made him feel colder. Why did giving away warmth make him feel warmer, but being rejected made him feel like he lost what he was offering?_

_He shook the confusion away. There was always the next being._

_But there was only so many “next beings” before he began to feel…less than. He wanted to rest…to stop flying and laughing and smiling. He wanted to keep what warmth he had left. Is this why that being stayed floating?_

_Up ahead, he saw a bright light forming. It looked like it could be warm, and he felt it call to him. But it might not be warm. Like many of the mysterious things he had seen, it could be yet another thing that will steal his warmth. Would it be safer to stay back? To keep to himself? To ignore the call of this light?_

_No. He couldn’t give up. The act of going after what he wanted was what gave him warmth to begin with. This light either led to what he wanted, or would destroy him._

_It was worth it._

_He flew faster than ever, the rush of it bringing a smile back to his face._

_As he flew into the light, he heard a scream. Then he was screaming. He felt horrible feelings all over. No…suddenly he had names for the feelings. Pain and fear. Was this what destruction felt like?_

_“ **Danny!** ”_


	2. Split Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why did Tucker have to jinx it?

Danny jolted up in his bed, drenched in sweat and hyperventilating. There was a gentle knock at his bedroom door.

“You can come in, Jazz.” He called out, surprising himself with a hoarse voice.

_Am I getting sick?_

The door creaked open to reveal his sister peeking in with a worried look on her face. She gently tip-toed over to him and sat beside him on the bed, resting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Are you okay? I heard screaming.” She queried in a hushed voice. Danny felt his mouth form into a little ‘o’ as he realised that the screaming he had done in his dream had made its way to the real world.

“Sorry to wake you. It was just a dream.” He replied, attempting a tone that would reassure her that he was okay. Jazz nodded with pursed lips.

“Did you want to talk about the dream? It must have been scary if you were screaming.” She commented, her feigned casualness all too transparent to the little brother who knew just how much of a worrywart she was. Still, it was sweet that she didn’t want to embarrass him. He sighed as he thought of how to respond. He really didn’t want to worry her.

“It wasn’t scary, just…confusing for the most part. Do you ever have dreams where it feels like a memory, but when you wake up you realise that it never actually happened to you?” He asked.

“I think so. One time I dreamt I was in a movie. I thought I had seen the movie and remembered how the movie ended, but when I woke up I realised I made up the whole thing up. Was it like that?” She answered, eyeing him with hope that she was on the right track.

“Maybe? I don’t know.” He said with a shrug, looking away as he hunched awkwardly. Despite this, Jazz continued to trace a comforting pattern on his shoulder.

“The subconscious does lots of funny things to try to prepare you for potential real life situations. It’s very normal to have confusing dreams. I wouldn’t dwell on it too much, unless something felt… _paranormal_ about the dream. Then you should probably try to figure out if it means something.” Jazz explained, ending with a knowing lilt to her voice. Danny turned back to see her giving him an understanding smile. Maybe it would be safe to open up to her. She’d been taking the whole half-ghost thing really well lately.

“Well…the reason I was screaming was because right at the end of the dream, I felt the same pain I had felt during the…accident.” He confessed. Her expression dropped instantly.

“Danny!” She gasped, pulling him into a tight hug. Danny rolled his eyes.

_Some things will never change._

“Are you still in pain?” She questioned anxiously.

“I might be soon if you don’t loosen your grip.” Danny joked, hoping to ease her worries. She suddenly released him from the hug.

“Sorry. Do…do you often have dreams about that day?” Jazz asked, face riddled with concern. He squirmed, not sure how honest to make his answer. Should he reveal that for a time after the accident with the Ghost Portal he had been having frequent dreams reliving the incident and the pain that came from it? Even though this was the first he had dreamt of it in a while, the fact that he relived the pain and the fear without how it happened concerned him. Was he scared that if he went to the Ghost Zone that he’d feel that pain again? It didn’t make sense, as he’d been there plenty of times without getting a rehash of what he felt that day. Feeling pretty certain that figuring out what was going on was out of Jazz’s realm of expertise, Danny decided it was better to not let her worry about something she can’t help with.

“No. This was pretty random and out of nowhere. Maybe I was getting too relaxed and my subconscious is just trying to keep me on my toes?” He suggested, making sure to sound as light and positive as he could. Jazz appeared to consider what he said.

“Hmmm…maybe. Well, let me know if it happens again. I’ll do my best to help.” She promised as she rose to her feet. Danny offered a warm smile.

“I know you will.” He commented, winning a smile back before his sister made her way back out the room. Danny dropped onto his back with a huff. With any luck, he’d be able to get enough sleep to not be dead on his feet at school tomorrow.

* * *

“Danny! Wait up!” Danny glanced up to see Tucker and Sam walking towards him. He had woken up late and had to rush not to be late to school, so he hadn’t had a chance to catch up with the pair before class. Now that lunch had rolled around, he felt pent up and was glad to get a chance to talk to his friends.

“Hey guys! What’s crackin’?” He greeted with cheesy finger guns. Tucker grinned as he returned the finger guns while Sam rolled her eyes without bothering to hide her smile. It was her choice to be best friends with a couple of dorks, so this was what she had to live with.

“Things are cracka- _lacking_ , if you know what I mean. It’s gotten boring around here lately.” Tucker complained. Sam snorted.

“Says the boy who is always too scared to appreciate when cool shit is going down?” She questioned with a quirked eyebrow.

“Okay, first things first: nearly being killed by a monster is not “cool shit”. But, the longer we go without something happening, the more I’m starting to see your point. I feel like a lab rat pressing the ‘shock me’ button just for something to do.” Tucker retorted, his last comment winning a laugh out of his friends. Danny’s laughter was cut short when the sudden sound of not too distant screams waved over them.

“Be careful what you wish for, buddy.” Danny warned with a sigh, before glancing back and forth for a place to transform.

“Danny, this way! This classroom is empty.” Sam commanded, grabbing his hand before pulling him into said classroom. Before he could go Ghost, Sam suddenly gestured for him to stop.

“Wait, before you go. Is everything okay with you? Something seems off.” She asked with a soft frown. As Tucker entered the room, the sound of screams became louder through the open door.

“I’ll talk about it later. Right now, I have work to do. Going Ghost!” He called on his power to transform into Danny Phantom, and fell into darkness.

~

Danny blinked at his friends with confusion. He looked down at his hands to see that he was transformed and gave a startled yelp.

“Wh-What’s going on? How did I get here? Why am I transformed?” He asked nervously. Sam and Tucker gave each other concerned looks before turning back to Danny.

“Dude, did you forget the last minute? Sam dragged you in here and you transformed to fight whatever is attacking people outside!” Tucker answered. Danny tried to absorb what he was saying, but he was still too confused.

“Danny…what is the last thing you remember?” Sam asked. Danny gulped.

_Did I miss something important?_

“I remember going to bed, and next thing I know I’m looking at the two of you.” He confessed. Had he really forgotten waking up and heading to school?

“Oh man, how did you suddenly lose half a day?” Tucker questioned, bewildered.

“Half a day? How am I meant to explain missing class? I’m already halfway to grounded as it is!” Danny exclaimed in a panic. Sam and Tucker shot each other yet another concerned glance.

“Danny, you went to class. You just seem to have forgotten everything that happened between waking up and transforming just now. Speaking of, the reason for that is still out there!” Sam reminded urgently. Danny shook off his confusion, refocusing himself. People needed his help. Whatever was going on with him would have to wait.

* * *

Danny groaned as he flew behind the school to where he knew his friends would be waiting. The fight had only taken twenty minutes, but by the end he was starving and knew that anything good that the cafeteria would have had would be all out by now. He dropped down in front of Sam and Tucker, becoming visible. Tucker flinched in surprise while Sam merely smiled at his sudden appearance.

“That was nice and quick. You won’t have to skip any class and we even still have time to talk about what the hell is going on with you.” She commented.

“Can we talk after I get some food? I am starving and I have no idea if I ate breakfast or not.” Danny requested, floating with a sad hunch. Tucker, having quickly recovered from his shock, waved something wrapped in tinfoil in front of Danny’s face.

“Grabbed you a burrito before they could run out. Am I good or what?” Tucker revealed with a smug grin. Danny gasped as he grabbed the burrito out of his hands.

“The best!” He responded with full enthusiasm, ripping the foil open and taking a huge bite out of the bulky wrap. After chewing and swallowing, he let out a satisfied sigh. Figuring he’d left talking about his issues long enough, he began walking towards the back stairs so they could sit as they discussed, before being interrupted by a hand to the chest.

“Uh, don’t you think you should de-ghost before someone sees you?” Tucker questioned.

“Oh! Right! Oops, my bad.” Danny said with an awkward laugh, before calling for his transformation to be dropped.

~

Danny braced to take off towards whatever the ghost of the day was, before realising that he was suddenly outside.

“Um…guys? How did we get outside? And why am I holding a burrito?” He asked, looking towards his friends with confusion. An expression of strong concern fell over both his friends’ faces as they looked at him. He shook his head to refocus, pushing the burrito into Tucker’s hand that had found its way to his chest somehow.

“Never mind that now. I have work to do. Going Ghost!”

~

“Hey! Why’d you take it back? I wasn’t done with it!” Danny complained, snatching the burrito back. Looking at it, he saw that the hands holding it were still transformed.

“What the – why didn’t I transform back?” He questioned, looking at his hands with confusion and worry. If he lost the ability to turn human again, it would cause a lot of problems.

“Danny, you did transform back. But you couldn’t remember anything that happened between going Ghost to right before you turned back. You thought you hadn’t gone to the fight yet so you went Ghost again.” Sam explained, her nervousness about what was happening evident in her voice. Danny sighed. It sounded like if he dropped his transformation again he would just forget again and this could wind up an endless loop. Especially if he thinks Sam and Tucker are trying to prank him when they try to explain it to him. He needs to speak directly to himself.

“Okay, before I de-Ghost I need you to record something for me.”

~

“Ugh! Why am I holding this burrito again! Did I hit my head and now trying to transform magnets the closest burrito to me instead?” Danny thought out loud. It was a stupid thought, but he was confused enough to consider it a possibility.

“Danny! Before you transform again, you need to watch this. Please!” Sam urged, gripping his arm with one hand and gesturing to Tucker’s phone with the other. Danny could only nod nervously in response.

_What the hell is going on?_

Tucker turned his phone around so that the screen faced Danny, on which he could see a thumbnail of his alter ego Danny Phantom looking into the camera…holding the same burrito? Before Danny could say anything, Tucker hit play.

_“Before you freak out and run off, we already beat the ghost. Now that that’s settled, you need to know what’s going on. Something happened to us. Something has separated our memories so that anything that happens while we’re Danny Fenton I can’t remember it and anything that happens while we are Danny Phantom you can’t remember it. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. You can’t remember taking a bite out of that burrito, but I bet you can taste it from when I did. Unless we figure out what is wrong with me – us? I don’t know, but if we don’t figure out what’s going on and find a way to fix it, we’re going to have to rely on Sam and Tucker to relay information back and forth, so please trust that this isn’t a prank. Okay that should do, Tuck. Keep filming until I drop my transformation so I can see something I’ll remember saying.”_

The Danny Phantom on the screen closed his eyes and the familiar rings passed over his body, revealing Danny Fenton opening his eyes and looking confused.

 _“Ugh! Why am I holding the burrito again?”_ He saw himself say before the video stopped. Looking up at the expressions of his friends, he knew this was serious. What was he meant to do in the meantime while they figured this one out? Wait for Sam or Tucker to explain why he transformed and send him on his way? What if he wasn’t anywhere near his friends? What if he gets blasted by some ghost because he has no idea of the imminent danger?

“What are we gonna do?” Danny asked softly, even though he knew they didn’t have an answer any more than he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said in the prologue, I haven't watched the show in years, so I apologise if a character acting OOC interferes with your ability to enjoy the story. I'm enjoying the way I'm writing the characters so far, so I'm hoping that it will be enjoyable to read too. Cheers!


	3. World's Weirdest Pen Pals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a daunting new problem, but Danny and his friends have managed to come out on top of every challenge so far. What could go wrong?

Danny tapped his pen impatiently, trying not to stare at the clock as he waited for the last class of the day to end. He’d done the best he could to absorb something in school today, but between his dream last night and whatever was happening with his memories his focus was elsewhere. Maybe a ghost that had memory wiping powers attacked him? It would make sense that he wouldn’t remember that happening. What didn’t make sense was the memory loss switching based on which identity he was at the time.

_Hang on…identity?_

Was there a ghost that could give people magical…what did Jazz call it…Dissociative Identity Disorder? Could people with DID remember what happened when other personalities took the helm? Did it count as DID if the other personality was just him? Why can’t class be over so he could just look up what DID actually was?!

Danny jolted in shock as the final bell trilled loudly in his ears. Quickly, he shoved his notebook, worksheet and pen into his bag and bolted towards the door. After pulling out his phone, he began googling DID. Not looking where he was going, he found himself walking right into someone, sending his phone flying.

“Sorry!” He exclaimed, looking up and hoping that whoever he walked into was anyone but Dash.

Alas.

“Watch where you’re going, Fen-turd!” Dash warned in his usual obnoxious tone. Danny settled himself from reacting. After all, he was actually in the wrong this time. It had nothing to do with the fact that Lancer had snapped his attention their way after hearing Dash yell and Danny didn’t have the time or emotional energy to deal with getting punished for starting a fight. Nope! One hundred percent because he was mature enough to take the high road.

“I am genuinely sorry, Dash. I didn’t mean to bump into you, I just have a lot on my mind right now.” Danny apologised, trying not to react to the weirdly excited look on Lancer’s face. Dash’s face twitched, apparently thrown off by the non-confrontational response.

“Oh. Well then…let’s see what’s got a nerd turd like you so distracted that you can’t even look where you’re going!” Dash proclaimed, before snatching Danny’s phone from the floor. Danny lunged to get his phone back, but Dash merely pushed him and held him back with one hand.

“ _Do people with DID experience gaps in memory?_ I don’t know what DID is, but if you’ve forgotten you’re a loser I can remind you any time!” Dash teased loudly, causing many students around them to laugh.

“Baxter! That’s enough! Give Fenton his property back!” Lancer finally interrupted. Dash looked between Lancer, Danny’s phone, and Danny, appearing to consider whether it would be worth the punishment to just throw the phone as hard as he could against the closest wall. It seemed like he decided it wasn’t worth it when the bully huffed and tossed the phone lazily at Danny, who then scrambled to catch it before it could fall.

“Good work dealing with your issue by talking like men instead of brawling like apes!” Lancer cheered before walking off. Not having time to contemplate why teachers think “don’t do that” works on bullies, Danny went to take a side step around Dash only to be grabbed by the front of his shirt.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Dash asked with a growl. Danny had to hold back a laugh. He’d been waiting for Dash to try something like this to test out something he saw in a video, and Lancer wasn’t there to bust him for it.

Danny quickly put one hand over the one holding his shirt, the other behind Dash’s elbow, and stepped in to sweep the leg, knocking Dash to the ground.

“Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!” Danny quoted with a smug tone usually reserved for quipping in ghost battles. The students that got the reference laughed, while the majority of the A-listers just looked confused. Maybe it had less to do with whether or not they got the reference and more to do with how a “loser” managed to knock one of their own to the floor. Danny really didn’t want to have to deal with the aftermath of this right now, so as soon as he released Dash’s arm, he bolted.

Sprinting down the corridor, he heard feet following him and upped his speed. It wasn’t until he got outside that he heard the voices of his friends calling out to him. Slowing down and turning around, Sam was nearly caught up to him while Tucker lagged behind, red-faced and out of breath.

“Damn, Danny! Since when were you that fast out of Ghost mode?” Sam queried, actually appearing to have had to have made an effort to keep up with him.

“Forget that! How did you make knocking Dash on his ass look so easy and graceful?” Tucker managed to choke out. Danny couldn’t help but blush at the compliment.

“Sh-shut up, Tucker. It’s not that hard once you understand how to shift someone’s centre of balance, especially if they’re not expecting it. I probably couldn’t do it again if he saw it coming.” Danny answered dismissively.

“Wow. Did you just get stronger, faster, and smarter in one day?” Sam teased, elbowing Danny in the ribs.

“I dunno, I must be going through that puberty thing everyone’s been going on about.” He replied dryly, rolling his eyes at her and winning a hearty laugh from both friends.

Eventually arriving back home, Danny continued his search into DID, which unfortunately became a dead end. Although it’s common for there to be gaps in memory, people with the disorder didn’t have any control over switching and he clearly did. Sam didn’t get very far into her research on selective amnesia before she became infuriated after coming across a study that involved electrocuting rats to force amnesia.

“Maybe he’s been hypnotised. Y’know, like Captain Underpants.” Tucker suggested, making Danny groan and Sam snort.

“One, I hate that that even makes sense as an option. Two, it still doesn’t work because hypnosis would take an external force making me switch, but I’m in complete control of it.” Danny argued, slumping in defeat in his chair.

“I dunno, we could try dumping a cup of water over your head while you’re Phantom and see if that works.” Sam joked. Danny considered it for a moment, before shaking the thought away.

“No way. I don’t want to deal with whatever retaliation the other me might come up with if I let you do that.” He responded. Noticing the room had gone strangely quiet, he looked up at his friends to see they once again looked worried.

“Other you?” Tucker questioned, sounding surprisingly nervous.

“Well, how else am I meant to phrase it?” Danny asked with a shrug. As far as Danny could rationalise, if the him he becomes when he goes Ghost has different memories, thoughts, and experiences to him, then that him is basically a different person. It didn’t matter though. Once they found a way to fix this, restoring his memories would combine his individual experiences and he’d just be one person again. It was just like when he was split into “fun” Danny and “super” Danny, only this would be easier because these versions of him don’t exist at the same time so the memories would slot next to each other rather than blend chaotically. A buzzing sound snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Oh snap! I gotta jet, sorry!” Tucker farewelled, before answering his phone and uttering more apologies into it as he left the room. Sam sighed as she stood up from the bed.

“I should probably go too. There’s only so much teenage rebellion I can fit in before I run out of time for homework. See ya Danny!” With that, Sam was out the door and Danny was on his own. Out of ideas for how to sort out his dual identity issue, Danny had nothing better to do than get a start on his homework.

The problem was that when you’re an antsy kid and nothing you’re working on is even due tomorrow, it’s really damn hard to force yourself to focus. Danny couldn’t stop thinking about trying to find the best way to communicate with the other him that didn’t require Sam or Tucker. He didn’t want to be stuck when he inevitably got caught up somewhere without them. Writing in a notepad seemed like a decent option, but it would take too long in an emergency. Not to mention how bad it could be if someone stumbled upon it. He really wanted to brainstorm with the other him to see if he could come up with something, but wanting to talk to him so he could figure out how to talk to him was sort of like needing scissors to get scissors out of the packaging. Looking at the notebook in front of him, he figured he could use writing for now and find something more practical for later.

Danny found himself recounting his memories of the day as if writing a diary entry, a feeling of pride filling him as he detailed his one-up on Dash. Once he had listed the theories they had already gone through and requested that the other him try to come up with a way they could talk more directly, Danny set the pen down and called for his transformation.

~

In what felt like blinking, Danny went from looking at Tucker behind the school to sitting at his desk at home looking at a notebook filled with his handwriting. Judging by the light outside, night had fallen, which was just unsettling. Figuring the writing in front of him was either meant to explain something to him or was just homework, he leant forward to read it.

_“ ~~Dear~~ To Me,_

_Thank you for thinking of filming that video for me. It really helped me catch up with what was happening and take it seriously. I thought you might appreciate a rundown of what happened today so you’re not out of the loop.”_

Danny smiled as he read, appreciating that the other him took the time to keep him up to date. As he continued, the smile grew bigger, seeing that the other him managed to do the thing from the YouTube video on Dash and was surprised that it was as easy as they made it out to be. He was happy that the other him didn’t choose to hurt Dash while he was prone and just left instead. Not that he expected the other him to do anything like that, it just felt good to not have to be anxious about what the other him was up to unlike what had happened during the whole fun/super fiasco. He was disappointed by all the dead ends the team had run into in terms of finding the cause of the split, but he had no reason to doubt that they’d figure it out eventually.

_“As far as relying on Sam and Tucker to be able to communicate, I don’t think it’s a smart idea to expect them to be with us 24/7 just in case we need to go Ghost and also have any clue about what’s going on.”_

Danny furrowed his brow in thought. As reliable as his friends were, having them as his only way to talk to himself was basically begging for something to go wrong. The other Danny had already ruled out a notepad, and had asked for his ideas. Danny stared at the wall blankly. Why did the other Danny expect him to think of something that he couldn’t have?

He let himself become weightless, floating as he tried to think of something that was fast, and easy enough to carry around even while going Ghost. At first he considered using the voice record option on his phone, but carrying around his phone while being Phantom was a big risk to outing his identity. What could act as a voice recorder, but was smaller than and less conspicuous than a phone? As he heard Jazz enter her bedroom, he slapped his forehead with realisation.

_A voice recorder. Duh!_

Danny floated through the wall and into the bathroom between their bedrooms and knocked on the wall. After a soft yelp of surprise, he heard his sister give him the go to enter. Floating into the room, he found Jazz on her bed, slipping off her shoes.

“What’s up, Danny? Why are you hanging out as a ghost?” She queried. Danny considered explaining what was happening to him, before shutting the idea down. It would be better to fill her in when he had more information, and when they weren’t about to go to bed. He had no doubt she would stay up all night trying to find something in her textbooks that could help and he didn’t want to be the reason she didn’t get any sleep.

“I recently discovered that it’s easier to come up with ideas while floating, so I’ve been doing my creative writing homework like this.” He lied casually. Jazz’s eyes shimmered.

“Really? That’s fascinating! I wonder if going ghost has similar effects on the brain to being in a sensory deprivation tank.” She pondered, drumming her fingers on her chin.

_Oh no, the lie is too interesting somehow. Refocus!_

“Anyway, floating has been helping but I’m having trouble writing the ideas down in time. Do you have any spares of those little psych voice recorders? I keep getting distracted by apps when I try to use my phone.” Danny requested, hoping he didn’t sound suspicious. With a smile and a nod, Jazz hopped up and went over to her desk, opening one of her drawers and pulling out a little black device half the size of her palm by the lanyard and dangled it in front of him to take.

“I’m really happy you’re taking extra steps to try to deal with your ADHD, but I still wish I could convince mom and dad to let you take medication. It could help so much with the strain that your mind goes through.” Jazz commented as he grabbed the recorder. Danny fought back a snort. His supposed ADHD was the least concerning strain on his mental health right now.

“Thanks, Jazz. I’ll give it back when I’m done with it.” He thanked, floating back to the wall he came in through.

“Hold onto it as long as you need, baby brother.” She replied with a loving smile. Despite his icy Ghost mode, the kindness made him feel warm. The warmth was so familiar to him in a way that was so confusing. It was familiar in the normal way that he was used to his sister showing love for him, but there was something underneath that feeling that felt like and old, fuzzy memory.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he realised he had floated all the way back to his room. Pleased with his success at finding a way to communicate with himself, he began recording his memories from the day, sparing no details about how awesome he was in the fight despite being very confused. Once done, he sat himself back down in the chair and let his transformation fall, looking forward to whatever message the other him could leave him the next day.

He was not expecting to wake up in bed in the middle of the night. Sitting up, he looked around the room for a clue as to why he was out. The room was quiet, as was the world outside the window. He floated over to the desk to find the voice recorder sitting on top of some homework that looked vaguely more completed than before. He went to grab the recorder, only to gasp as his fingers went through the device and continued to pass through the desk. He stared at his hands, wondering why his intangibility had become unstable. He held his breath and tensed his hands, focusing on the idea of becoming corporeal. Just as he was about to bring his hands down to his desk to test his efforts, an alarming realisation hit him.

_I stopped breathing, so why can I still hear something breathing in here?_

Danny whipped around urgently, only to gasp in shock as he took in the sight of his own body still asleep in bed.


	4. Separation Anxiety

Danny felt a surge of panic rise in his core. What did this mean? Why was he out of his body? Dread swirled in with the panic. Had the other Danny kicked him out? He felt himself spiralling when a sudden sound of a shiver snapped him out of it. Looking at the sleeping Danny, the boy was huddling into his blankets with visible, shuddering breaths. He realised that he was making the room colder. Just like with Jazz earlier, he was hit with the sensation of an old, fuzzy memory itching to resurface. Despite how confusing it all was, he was certain that he didn’t want harm the other him so he pushed the memory back along with his fear and dread. He forced himself to concentrate on things that made him happy, like making his friends laugh and protecting people from danger. As he searched for moments, he suddenly was brought back to hours ago when he was reading the other Danny’s description of his day. He remembered imagining the boy’s proud grin as he remarked on his well timed Planet of the Apes reference and remembered how it had made him feel warm. With that, the iciness in the room had dissipated and the boy asleep in the bed had stilled.

Now that Danny had calmed down from his initial shock, he shook his head at the idea that the other him would kick him out of their body. Danny knew himself well enough that he was sure that he’d never do it without a good reason. So either there was a good reason for it, or it was an accident. He considered waking him up, but thought better of it. It wouldn’t do them any good to wake him before he could finally get a full night of sleep. Danny hovered over his sleeping form, eyes drifting over his face curiously.

_I’ve never seen my face look so peaceful. He looks so… **warm**._

With that thought and next to no impulse control, Danny reached out to touch his face. With a sigh of relief he was glad to find that despite not being able to touch anything else he was still able to make contact with his body. Moving to cup his cheek with his hand, Danny revelled in the warmth that his skin was radiating. A voice of guilt warned that if the other him felt this warm, surely his touch was ice cold to the boy. He watched silently, waiting for a sign of discomfort. Only when the other Danny snuggled into the hand with a slight smile did he sigh in relief. Suddenly, Danny felt the urge to hold his body close. Surprised at the thought, he quickly withdrew the hand on the sleeping Danny’s cheek and backed away. Immediately, he missed the warmth, and judging by the little frown and furrowed brow on the sleeping boy’s face he missed the ghost’s presence too. The reaction got him to seriously consider giving in to the weird urge. If he wanted to feel warm and the other him liked being held, what was wrong with simply holding him? Danny floated back to the bed and reached out to grab his body’s shoulder as he reorientated himself, glad to find that he was able to touch the shirt he was wearing. It sure would be unfortunate if he could only touch his body and inevitably phased through the clothes to press up against… Danny shook the line of thought out of his head. He instead chose to focus on the fact that if he could touch the clothes on his body, it stood to reason he could also touch the bed he was on and would probably be able to actually lie down instead of float weirdly next to himself. Holding his breath in anticipation, he slunk an arm down the arm of his living body and joined it in resting on his stomach before he allowed himself to drop onto the bed. With great relief, his theory stood true and he was able to completely relax into his sheets and pillow. Needing more warmth, he pulled himself towards his living body and pressed his form along the other’s back. It felt…good. _Damn_ good, like he was soothing an ache he had grown accustomed to and forgot about. Before he could begin processing what that meant, he found himself quickly falling asleep.

His dream was strange, not in subject matter, but more the fact that he was completely aware it was a dream. He was reliving one of his earliest visits in the Ghost Zone. He vaguely recollected that it was the time he got lost while searching for some sort of beloved artefact that would calm down a wailing ghost and hopefully convince it to return to the Ghost Zone voluntarily. Just as it happened in real life, he stumbled upon a kindly spirit who luckily had no desire to kill him.

 _“Hello dear. Have we met before? You seem familiar…”_ She asked, voice echoing and crackling. He remembers saying “no”, but he also remembers leaving out that despite knowing that he hadn’t seen her before, she did feel strangely familiar, as though he had met her before, but long ago enough for the memory to be too fuzzy to recall. It reminded him of relatives that he had supposedly met as a toddler; It had happened, but he was too little to recall.

 _“You remind me of a youngling I once met. He was very young indeed, barely had a form, in fact. He did have a smile though. He liked to smile at others. Liked to make them happy, even though I don’t think he even knew what ‘happy’ was yet.”_ The ghost had reminisced fondly. Danny hadn’t been sure what she was going on about, but he did know it was nice to hear about kind ghosts.

_“There! That’s why you remind me of him! You have the same smile…”_

Suddenly, Danny found himself being pulled out of his dream as he felt the sensation of falling. Stopping himself from dropping further, he opened his eyes to find himself in darkness with the muffled sound of his alarm clock chiming. He willed himself to float up until he rose above his bed to see the other him in his body awake and tiredly trying to turn off the alarm. Eventually he found success and sat up, stretching his arms before rubbing sleep out of his eyes. It was almost strange being able to see himself from this outside perspective, but he supposed it happening before made it easier to deal with. Getting impatient with having to wait to talk to the other him, he floated down in front of him.

“We have a problem.” Danny stated, not bothering to wait for the other him to open his eyes. He expected him to jump with surprise, or at least freeze. He didn’t expect him to not react at all to him.

“Hey! This is serious! Focus!” He complained, snapping his fingers in front of his face. Still no reaction. The other him finally stopped rubbing his eyes and blinked them open, causing Danny’s stomach to drop. It was very clear that the other Danny couldn’t see him. He reached forward, hoping that touch would alert him to his presence, only to find his hand passing through his body.

“No…nononononono…this can’t be happening!” Danny cried out, watching as the other him got up with a relaxed expression as though nothing was wrong and proceeded to walk through him. Danny anxiously pulled at his own hair as he spun to watch his other self get ready for the day. Without being able to be seen, heard, or touched, how was he meant to let the other him know he was there?

~

Danny awoke feeling incredibly well-rested, which almost surprised him. Even on nights where he had the opportunity to actually sleep through the night, he often found himself waking up randomly on full alert, as if paranoid that something would get to him while his guard was down. Despite how awful his alarm clock sound was, it was kind of nice for it to be the first thing that woke him up. After a quick stretch and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he set about getting ready for school, not wanting a repeat of yesterday. After moving his school books back into his bag from his desk, he picked up the voice recorder, turning it as he regarded the device.

_Was there a chance that I actually did wake up in the middle of the night, but as Phantom?_

If that were the case, maybe he would have left a message. He pressed play, mildly disappointed that it was still the message the other him initially recorded last night. Despite his disappointment about no new messages, he found himself allowing the recording to continue to play as he listened to it again. Was it weird to say he enjoyed listening to his other self? That it was almost comforting? Once the recording wrapped up, he slung the lanyard around his neck and stuffed the recorder down his shirt before grabbing his bag and making his way to the door to head down to the kitchen. He stopped in his tracks when he stepped through a cold spot which sent the hairs on the back of his neck straight up.

“Hello? Is anybody there?” Danny called out. The energy he felt in the room died down so quickly it felt like he had imagined it in the first place. Maybe he did. Maybe dealing with so many ghosts on a daily basis, he was starting to imagine them showing up when he least expected it. Despite being quite convinced by this, he still couldn’t help but feel as though something was watching him.

Even as he ate his cereal, he couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. He found himself whipping his eyes back and forth as if to try to catch something in his peripheral vision. Eventually he had to force himself to stop, as Jazz was giving him worried looks.

“Hey Danny, hope the voice recorder helped with your creative writing.” Jazz commented, probably trying to start the conversation off easy so she could ask him what was wrong. Might as well cut to the chase.

“Yep, massive help. Does it feel like we’re…I dunno, being watched to you?” He asked, squirming a little in his seat. Jazz looked a little taken aback, but she took the time to look around the room as if considering what he said.

“No, it just feels how it usually feels when you’re in the room.” She replied with a reassuring smile.

“What does that mean?” Danny questioned nervously. Did he always change the way a room felt? Why hadn’t anybody told him before?

“Sorry, I assumed you knew. Before I knew about you-know-what, I could never explain it. But now I know about that and the existence of ghosts, I can tell it’s your ghost energy. It makes the room slightly colder and the hairs on my arms stand up.” She explained. It fit what he had felt in his room, so was he just…accidentally feeling his own energy? Maybe with his powers locked behind a memory wall, he couldn’t experience his own energy directly and could only feel it from the outside, like how weird it feels to touch a part of your body that has gone numb.

“Danny!” Jazz’s voice snapped him out of his train of thought and he looked up to see that she looked a little annoyed, but mostly concerned. She must have continued to talk and he hadn’t noticed.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to space out.” He apologised, embarrassed.

“You should really think about what I said last night.” Jazz implored with a serious expression.

_Oh no, what did she say last night? The other me didn’t tell me about his conversation with Jazz!_

Just as he was about to ask her to remind him, potentially making her suspicious, their father burst into the kitchen with a manic grin on his face.

“Morning kids! I stayed up all night working on fixing the Fenton Finder, and it looks like all that coffee and hard work has paid off! I found a ghost! It says it’s right here in this room!” He exclaimed with an excited, booming voice. Danny held his breath nervously as his father waved the device around, worried about what it could do when it was pointed at him.

“Dad! I told you not to bring inventions out when we’re eating! You’re probably going to give us radiation poisoning!” Jazz berated in a panic, jumping to her feet and pushing their dad away from Danny.

“Aw, but I wanna show Danny!” His dad whined.

“Sorry dad! I gotta get to school! See ya later!” Danny quickly farewelled, abandoning the scraps left of his breakfast and darting to the door with his bag. Once considerably down the street, he let out a sigh of relief. Danny wouldn’t know what he’d do without Jazz running interference on their parents, especially their dad. Back when being Danny Phantom was a secret from her too, the stress of messing up at home was sky high. It was comforting to know that these days, whether he was at home or at school, he’d usually have someone on his side backing him up.

The happy reminder of his support system combined with his satisfaction of finding an efficient way to talk to his other self put him in a great mindset for class. He was pleasantly surprised over what he could get done when he had a clear mind. It didn’t necessarily make sense why he could suddenly think so clearly, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Not even periodically feeling his own ghost energy could distract him.

Despite his good mood, he couldn’t help but feel disappointed that the school day ended with no need to go Ghost. He wanted to talk to his other self about how well he was doing, and he wanted to hear from his other self too. If nothing happened that required Danny Phantom to save the day, then his other self would have nothing to talk about. It wasn’t like anything could have happened to him while he was dormant in their head.

~

Danny’s day was _agony_. All day, all he did was try to get somebody’s attention. His own, Jazz’s, Sam and Tucker’s, anyone! But the only thing he seemed to have energy enough to do was create a temporary cold spot that only seemed to affect the other Danny. What’s worse was that the other Danny just shrugged it off every time, probably because of what Jazz said at breakfast about his ghost energy. So he waited for something to happen that would make him go Ghost. Then he’d finally be in control and could tell the other him that he’s trapped outside their body. Unfortunately, it was a pleasant and peaceful day. When the other Danny got home and started doing his homework, he worried that the boy would end up going to bed without going Ghost at all.

Danny was flooded with relief when the other him pulled out the voice recorder. If he was about to leave a message, it meant he was about to transform!

“Hey other me. God, that’s weird to say out loud. I should just call you Danny. It is your name. Although, it’s kinda tempting to call you Phantom, because that's technically who you are whenever you’re in the driver’s seat, but I don’t know how you’d feel about that. Oh man, that’s even weirder; not knowing how you’d feel about something.” The other Danny stopped speaking to laugh awkwardly. Danny floated in front of the boy’s face, trying to sit in his eyeline. He just wanted to be looked at.

“Uh…anyway. I should mention that there’s no danger or anything so you don’t think you have to jet off anywhere, but you probably figuring that out from me rambling and sounding like an idiot. I just wanted you to know I had a really good day, it was kind of disappointing because that meant you didn’t have anything to do. So I figured you’d enjoy having a flight around town, hanging out with Sam and Tucker or whatever you want! Don’t forget to record a message for me so I can hear you – I mean, about it. Hear about it. Uh, have fun! Bye!” His other self rambled, cheeks tinging pink with embarrassment. As cute as it all was, and he’ll have to process _that_ reaction later, Danny just wanted him to shut up and transform already.

~

Danny blinked rapidly as he came to, taking in his suddenly different position. He was now sitting on his bed completely wrapped in his emergency, extra heavy weighted blanket. Looking around his room, he saw an empty soup bowl and a mug at his desk next to a neat pile of his homework.

_Did all the other me do was eat dinner and do my homework?_

Looking down, he saw the voice recorder still hung around his neck, making him feel giddy. Even if the only thing the other him did was boring stuff, it would still be good to hear from him and make sure he was okay. Danny felt nervous as he remembered the weighted blanket around him. Maybe he wasn’t okay after all. After an attempt to steady breath, he hit play.

“ _Danny! I’m still here! I don’t know why, but I was pushed out of our body last night and I’ve been out ever since. I tried talking to you but you can’t see or hear me, and I can’t touch anything! Oh god, it feels so good to be touching stuff right now. It fucking **sucks** not being able to touch anything. I felt so empty, like I didn’t really exist. I –_” Danny held his breath as he listened to his other self hyperventilate in the recording. He was right, he was being watched all day. He felt so stupid for dismissing all the signs. He looked around his room, wondering where in the room his other self was, wishing he could offer some kind of comfort. The breathing in the message steadied out.

“ _I don’t know why, but when you were asleep I was able to touch you, and touch whatever you were touching. If you don’t mind, could you try to go to sleep as soon as you can? I want to see if it will happen again or if it was a one off kinda deal. You should wear the recorder to bed, that way if it works I can tell you. Don’t worry, I already finished our homework, ate dinner and brushed our teeth, so you’re pretty much good to go. Sorry if that sounds really pushy, I just…really need to know. I guess I’ll see you? Bye._ ” As the recording ended, Danny felt his heart drop.

“Danny…I’m so sorry. We’re going to find out what’s wrong and we’re going to fix this. I promise.” He vowed staring straight forward as confidently as he could. With that, he tossed off the weighted blanket, shucked off his jeans, and dove under his sheets with determination to fall asleep as soon as he could.

~

Danny felt like a complete creep as he floated above his body, watching for a change in his breathing that could indicate that the other Danny had fallen asleep. Every now and then, he’d reach out to see if he could touch him yet, scowling each time as his hand passed through.

_Damn it! At this rate, hell’s gonna freeze over before he falls asleep!_

Then, he felt a change. Suddenly, he felt his icy core grow stronger. The Danny below him let out a steady, visible breath. Reaching forward, this time his finger pressed into the warm cheek. Danny nearly shouted with joy, only stopping because he had no clue if being able to be heard came with being able to touch and it would suck pretty bad if he waited this long only to accidentally wake himself up. Danny dropped himself onto the bed, finally able to interact with the furniture again since having control of their body. He grabbed the recorder and wiped it clean before recording a new message saying that it worked. Once that was done, he went to climb over the sleeping boy to hold him again, only to stop in his tracks when he realised that it wasn’t what he needed. He needed to be _held_. Returning to the front side of the sleeping Danny, he almost laughed as he lay down and backed into himself. Last night he blanched at the idea of holding himself, and now he was eagerly demanding to be the little spoon, grabbing the other Danny’s arm and wrapping it around his chest with both hands. As the warmth from his body radiated through him, he finally felt himself relax. A soft groan and movement from behind him startled him, worrying him that the other him was stirring to wake. The movement turned into a hand snaking underneath his side and emerging on the other side to wrap around his waist, both arms on his abdomen suddenly tightening in a hug-like hold, pulling the body pressed up against him even closer.

_Yesyesyesyesyesyes!_

Danny felt elated. He couldn’t give a shit about the fact that the person who was holding him technically being himself any more. All he could care about was how good it felt to be held. Especially like this. Especially by him. It sounded weird, but everything felt better when he was close to his other self, like he was closer to being whole again. Danny was a campfire he just wanted to jump into.

_Wait, what?_

His eyes widened with shock. Why did he suddenly think of the other as “Danny” as if he was something else? Was he losing his own identity? Was that why the other him wanted to call him Phantom? Because he felt it too? He scrunched his eyes shut, forcing the thoughts away. Just because he thought of the other him as “Danny” didn’t mean he wasn’t Danny too. They were both him. Two halves of one whole. It didn’t matter that he felt like a whole person right now, he’d only be half until they found a way to be together again. He snuggled further into the other Danny. Until they found a fix, this was as close as he was going to get, and he wasn’t about to complain about how it felt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thanks for reading this far! I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments if you have any, especially as that always helps give me an idea of what I am doing right (or wrong lol)
> 
> Cheers!


	5. When Being Separated Brings You Closer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise in advance if this is a mess; I finished and proofread it at 1am and I am not a night owl

When Danny woke up, he could have sworn it felt like he was holding something in his arms before whatever it was vanished into thin air, and he could have sworn it felt like a person. Opening his eyes, he obviously couldn’t see anybody there, but the tingle in his arm from blood flow returning to it was all the proof he needed to know that his other self had been there, and that sleeping had made it possible for them to touch. Regardless to not needing confirmation, Danny sat up and quickly pressed play on the voice recorder.

 _“It worked! I can finally touch yo – uh…the bed. Thank you Danny.”_ Crackled a voice with far more ghost-like interference than the previous messages from his other self. It caught him a little off guard before he realised that it was probably because without having a body, the other him was more like a ghost than ever. Danny was fascinated to hear what his other half sounded like without being filtered through his vocal chords. It still sounded pretty much just like him, but there was an otherness to it that he wasn’t sure anybody but himself would be able to pick up on. He was tempted to play the message again, before remembering his other self was probably still in the room and thought better. It would have been a new low to look creepy in front of himself.

“Good morning Ph – Danny. Oh god, this is still weird. I feel like my brain is going to fold in on itself trying to think about this.” He mumbled, before burying his face into his hands. He still had no idea if the other Danny had an issue with being called Phantom, and upsetting him was the last thing he wanted to do. When he felt a sudden coldness pass into his shoulder, Danny couldn’t suppress the gasp that escaped his lips. Was the other Danny trying to let him know it was alright? He called for the transformation to give him the opportunity to speak.

…

When he blinked and nothing seemed different, Danny was worried that he might not have switched at all. Nervously, he pressed play on the device.

 _“Could you feel my hand just then? Oh god, please tell me you could at least feel something.”_ Danny quickly hit pause on the message.

“Y-Yeah. I couldn’t feel the sensation of your touch, but I felt coldness where I think you touched. Try again somewhere else.” Danny spoke into the deceptively empty room. After a moment, the same coldness passed into the tip of his nose, making him feel like he was going to sneeze.

“Stop it! That tickles!” He giggled, waving his hand in front of him, giving him the sensation he was waving his hand past a strong air conditioner. The coldness retracted, before he felt it again on his lips. The sensation and the placement were both startling. What did it mean? After a few seconds of forcing himself to drop the idea of the other Danny wanting to kiss him, it finally clicked.

“Oh! You want to talk! Sorry…” With that, he quickly transformed.

…

Danny sighed to himself as he became conscious. He was now standing in the bathroom with his clothes for the day laid out on the sink. The other Danny didn’t have to keep doing things for him. It made him feel bad, like he was using him. He hit play as he undressed to shower.

 _“Thanks. Sorry, I couldn’t think of a better way to signal that I wanted to talk. Judging by what just happened, I think my current intangibility is temporary, and that either as I get stronger or as time passes I’ll regain control. I was thinking once I’m somewhat corporeal again we could try going through the Ghost Catcher on reverse like last time and see if it fuses us back. For now, you should get ready for school. We’ve been talking for too long. See ya!”_ Danny blinked at the recording. Somehow, he had forgotten that the original goal was to merge them back together. Not knowing how to feel about that, he pushed it to the back of his mind to deal with later. When a hand-shaped coldness pressed into his back as if attempting to push him toward the shower, Danny was suddenly aware that he was naked in front of his other self. An uncontrollable blush ran from his cheeks to his collarbone.

_Why am I so embarrassed? There’s nothing here he hasn’t seen before!_

Danny shakily stepped into the shower and turned the water on, awkwardly swatting at the stream until it was warm enough. Would the other him turn away and give him privacy, or would he watch? Danny shook his head violently, spraying water droplets against the glass as he dismissed the perverse thought. The other him was probably floating there bored out of his mind, not having a single thought about being in a room with his own naked body. Why would he?

~

Danny felt like the world’s weirdest pervert. Once he discovered that passing through his other self let him feel the warmth from his body, he was constantly looking for legitimate reasons to touch him. It took all of his self-control to not phase completely into his body to feel his living energy all over. Not to mention how strange it was to see what he looked like naked from behind. Did his back muscles always look like that? Was the curve from his shoulder to his waist always so pleasing? Not to mention his ass –

_Stop! Stop that right now, brain!_

“Get it over with already!” Danny growled, shoving his hand against his other self’s back. Luckily without hearing him, the other Danny seemed to get the message and shambled into the shower like a newborn dear.

“This is going to be a long day.” Danny groaned, dragging his hands down his face.

* * *

“Yo Danny! Sam! How did you guys go with trying to find a way to fix Danny’s brain?” Tucker greeted a touch too loud for Danny’s taste. He flinched as Mr Lancer dropped a very heavy stack of papers a couple of metres away, but it didn’t seem like the other Danny or his friends had noticed.

“I was thinking, even if it wasn’t caused by hypnosis, maybe we could fix it with hypnosis?” Sam suggested at a far more reasonable volume. Before they had separated, Danny probably would have considered that a viable option.

“Uh, guys? There’s been a bit of a development. The ghost me was kinda…ejected from our brain and body?” The other Danny revealed, voice going up at the end as if it were a question.

“What?!” Tucker and Sam exclaimed at the same time, making both Dannys flinch.

“Yeah. So he’s just been hanging out, floating nearby until I go Ghost and he gets pulled back in to take control of our body. He should be around here somewhere, hang on.” He explained, before waving his arm through the air around him as if he were looking for something in the dark. Soon after, the arm swept through Danny’s stomach and doubled back to rest there.

“Ah, there he is. I can’t see him, but I can feel where he is from his cold energy.” The boy continued, turning away from the ghost to face his friends, but leaving his arm where his warmth could radiate into Danny’s core. Tucker and Sam chucked a quick worried glance to each other, before returning their gaze to Danny.

“You seem to be taking this well.” Sam commented, tone not betraying her attempt to hide whatever emotional reaction she was having. Tucker, however, had less luck with hiding his concern, if the furrowed brow and frown were anything to go off of.

“Well, yeah. It hasn’t been that hard at all for me, but for him – ” As the other Danny spoke, he began to remove his hand from his stomach, causing Danny to reflexively try to grab it to keep it there. The sensation on his arm must have startled Danny to stop talking, and now the boy had a worried expression on his face.

“Danny? Come on man, you’re scaring me.” Tucker pleaded nervously. Suddenly, the concern expression on the other Danny’s face shifted into a determined one.

“Follow me.” He commanded, before darting off down the hallway. Danny trailed behind, quickly followed by Sam and Tucker. They eventually came to an empty classroom and filed in with Danny shutting the door once they were all in.

“Okay, so this is going to sound weird, but please bear with me.” The other Danny started, waiting until he got a nod from both friends before he continued.

“The other me spent all day yesterday not being able to interact with anything all day. Not being seen or heard, or even being able to touch anything, I think that’s enough to drive anyone insane. I was thinking, if I went Ghost could you guys please hug him? I think he needs it.” The boy requested softly, twiddling his thumbs awkwardly. Danny felt tears start to build in his eyes. The other him just knew what he needed after feeling him grab for his arms, and immediately wanted to give it to him even though the request was embarrassing.

He went to blink the tears way, but the second he did he realised he was back in his body. He only had a moment to adjust before Sam was wrapping her arms around him in a firm hug. The pressure was amazing. He wrapped his arms around her and embraced her tightly, leaning in to her touch trying to maximise the affection.

“Oh wow, you were right. You do need this.” Sam commented in a gentle voice she rarely utilised. She must be really worried.

“Look out dudes, this hug is about to level up!” Tucker warned playfully, before sweeping in behind Danny and hugging his back. It took all of his self-control to not completely relax his body. Tucker was a lot warmer than Sam, and feeling his body heat over his back reminded him of last night and how good it felt with the other Danny too. It was strange; this was basically perfect, and yet Danny couldn’t help but wish the other Danny was here in the group hug too. He didn’t even realise that he was crying until Sam pulled away enough to wipe his cheeks.

“Danny, no matter what’s going on, we’re here for you. Both of you.” Sam promised, leaving her hand cupping his cheek. For some reason, when she said “both of you”, it realigned something in him. He didn’t know what the feeling was, or what it could mean, but he found himself smiling.

“Yeah, man. Even though this is confusing as hell, you can count on us.” Tucker chimed in, stepping back and giving him a pat on the back.

“Thank you for this. You guys are legit the best friends a halfa could ask for, you know that?” Danny acknowledged, stepping back as he smiled gratefully at them. He grabbed the voice recorder around his neck and hit record.

“Thank you, Danny.” He said softly into the device, before hitting stop and letting go of his control.

~

When Danny came to, he felt immediately concerned when he felt that his eyes were slightly puffy as if he had been crying and saw his friends looking at him with confused expressions.

“W-What happened?” He asked. Instead of responding, Tucker just pointed at the voice recorder that was still in his hand. With a slight gasp, Danny rushed to hit play.

 _“Thank you, Danny.”_ Was all the message said. It was all it needed to say for Danny to know that the hug was exactly what the other him needed. The soft voice, while vulnerable, sounded so happy. Danny found himself grinning as warmth spread through his stomach.

“So this split seems to be less divisive and conflicting than last time with the Ghost Catcher.” Sam noted.

“That reminds me. We were thinking of trying the Ghost Catcher to put us back together again, once the other me has grown strong enough to be tangible on his own.” Danny informed. Sam’s lips stretched tight, but she didn’t say anything.

“Until then, could we come up with a naming system to make this less confusing. As much as a nightmare Fun Danny and Super Danny were, at least they had the nicknames to make it clearer who we were talking about.” Tucker requested. Danny nodded in understanding.

“I’ve been contemplating calling the other me “Phantom”, but I’m not sure. He’s not just an alter ego, and I feel like if I call him that he might think that’s all I think he is.” Danny discussed, frowning as he glanced around the room wondering where his other self was. After a few moments, he felt cold energy pass into his lips. Assuming it meant the other Danny wanted to say something, he called his transformation.

What felt like a second later, he was now looking at the ground and holding the voice recorder with both hands. He hit play.

 _“It’s okay. You can call me Phantom. I know we’re both Danny and you wouldn’t just – uh, anyway… I’m fine with Phantom, so don’t worry. I’ll just try not to react to Danny. Okay, bye!”_ The voice of his other self sounded awkward, as if it was hard for him to come to terms with.

“Thanks…Phantom.”

~

It didn’t take long for Phantom to get bored floating behind Danny just waiting for class to finish. Despite not wanting to leave his other self, he was growing more curious as to just how far he actually could go from him. Was there an invisible tether binding them? Would he grow weak if he went too far? Was he not tied to his human self in any way? The last option seemed to upset him the most. He’d never know until he tried.

Phantom phased through the wall leading to the outside world and waited on the other side. Experiencing no side effects beyond the anxiety of leaving his body, he dared to drift further away. Soon, he was flying as fast as he could, elated that he could feel the wind rushing over his face and through his hair. He hadn’t been flying like this since the last fight a couple of days ago and he had missed it. The feeling was almost enough to make up for the dread filling his gut.

Taking a break, he noticed he was on one of the main streets of Amity Park, which was considerably far from the school. He couldn’t help but frown. He felt a nervous tug urging him in the direction of the school, but beside that there was no indication that he was bound to his human self. The tug could just be emotions manifesting in a sensation after all. He was about to head back to the school when he heard a familiar bark.

“Cujo?” He called out, turning in the direction he heard the bark come from. Further down the street, he saw Cujo excitedly playing fetch with…Ember?! Phantom braced himself and darted down to street level, determined to see what the ghost was up to. Cujo noticed him first, wagging his tail and barking happily at him. Ember looked up to see what Cujo was reacting to and flinched in fear when she caught sight of him.

_At least ghosts can see me. Yay._

“What are you doing out of class, Halfa?” She exclaimed, before her frightened eyes narrowed in confusion.

“Wait…you’re not the Halfa. You’re just the ghost. You ditching the human, or did you get kicked out?” She questioned, seeming to relax from her earlier fear. Was it really that obvious he wasn’t his whole self? Not wanting to rouse suspicion that he was any weaker, Phantom figured it was best to act like this was no big deal.

“Nah, school just got boring so I wanted to fly around for a bit. I hope you’re not getting up to any trouble.” He conversed casually with a lilted tone, floating closer and patting Cujo on the head. Ember rolled her eyes.

“Do I _look_ like I’m up to something? I’m clearly just trying to enjoy some time out here before you and your little human inevitably kick me back into the Ghost Zone.” She explained.

“Why don’t you seem too concerned about me doing that right now?” He questioned, crossing his arms. He wasn’t sure how he felt about being dismissed so easily. He would have thought that in the split it would be his human half that would be deemed a low threat. Ember narrowed her eyes in thought.

“Because you’re a fellow ghost who would rather be here than there? Besides, isn’t it the human that makes you fight us? I mean, he is a _Fenton_.” Ember replied, expression growing more cautious as she thought about it more. The way Ember was talking about him, it definitely seemed like she always assumed that he was always split into separate entities that combined into a Halfa.

_What did she think we are? Some sort of Dragonball Z fusion?_

“No, he doesn’t make me do anything. I _like_ protecting people.” He insisted. The look she gave him was incredulous, before she looked away with a scoff.

“You are such a weirdo.” She lent down and picked up the ball of ectoplasm she had been throwing for Cujo.

“Are you going to be chill or are you gonna fight me?” She snarled. Despite how annoyed she seemed, he could tell it was at least partially a front. Was she actually scared of him?

“Well, like I said, I like protecting people. If you’re not hurting anyone, then I don’t see why you can’t stick around.” He permitted, trying to sound authoritative. Ember gave an extremely sarcastic curtsey before turning her back on him and throwing the ball. Taking that as a pretty good indication that the conversation was over, Phantom turned back towards the school and took off.

~

It didn’t take long for Danny to feel as if something was wrong. Looking around the classroom, he couldn’t see any indication that anything was amiss. When he tried to pinpoint the reason for his unease, he started to realise that he felt like there was too much empty space around him, like he was exposed. There was only one thing he could think of that it could mean, and the thought shot a cannonball of anxiety into his stomach.

“Phantom? You there?” He whispered. His ghost half was usually within an arm’s reach, so if he was there he’d be the only one who could have heard him. Several seconds passing with no tell-tale sensations of cold, he knew Phantom was gone. Feeling lightheaded, he noticed his breathing had become fast and shallow. Forcing himself to take slower, deeper breaths, he focused on reasons why Phantom would leave that weren’t abandonment.

_He could have heard a ghost attack that my human ears couldn’t pick up on…_

_He could be testing what powers he still has access to…_

_He could have just gotten bored and gone for a joyride…_

The last one was the most likely option, but as much as it helped him calm down, it couldn’t completely get rid of the anxious feeling that was bubbling inside. Deciding to bottle it down, he chose to focus on the lesson the teacher was giving. A hidden blessing from this whole mess was that it was immensely easier to focus in class now. Not that he had no trouble, just that it had gone back to the regular level of difficulty he had before the Ghost Portal accident. If this kept up, he might have a chance to resurrect his grades. Maybe he should ask Phantom if they could hold off merging back until that happened.

Despite class being easier, he couldn’t wait for it to end. He had to go find Phantom; he didn’t want to be even more separated from his other half than he already had to. If he had to be late to the next class, or even skip it entirely just to find Phantom, it would have been worth it just to know he was safe. When the bell finally rang, he rushed to shove his stuff into his bag and bolted to the door. As he paced down the hall, he felt a tug that gave him the intuition that he was going in the right direction.

~

Phantom flew into the school as the bell rang for students to head to their next class. He wanted to intercept his human half in the hallway before he went to English so that he could fill him in on what happened with Ember. It wasn’t exactly urgent enough to justify making Danny late for class, but… he wanted to talk to him. Rounding the corner, the thrum of his ghost core sped up when he saw the familiar nest of raven-black hair of his human half walking pretty briskly in his direction.

That’s weird, our English classroom is in the opposite direction…

He didn’t have very long to ponder what he was doing before he caught side of Dash grinning madly as he barrelled down the hallway behind Danny, looking like he was prepping to launch himself at the unsuspecting boy.

“Danny! Look out!” Phantom cried out in a panic, zooming in on his human half and shoving him sideways and out of the path of Dash, who was already in the air mid-tackle. With nothing to hit, the bully crashed to the ground ungracefully. The hallway erupted into laughter, but Phantom couldn’t care less. He had just touched Danny. Actually touched him, physically. Looking back at his human half, the boy’s eyes were wide with shock and darting back and forth as his hands clutched at where Phantom had shoved him.

“Phantom? I- I heard you! I felt you!” Danny whispered excitedly as he formed a smile. Nervously, Phantom reached forward and attempted to touch the human’s hands, only to phase straight through.

“Oh, I guess it was only temporary.” Phantom commented with a disappointed sigh. The smile on Danny’s face dropped into an expression that Phantom was sure matched his own.

“Wow, Dash. When you were bragging about your plan to get back at Fenton, I thought it would be more complicated than just trying to tackle him.” Star teased, snapping Phantom out of his focus.

“What is going on here? Why are you all standing around instead of going to class?” Boomed the voice of Mr Lancer, causing the students who were loitering around to watch to scatter. The vice principal hunkered over to them, eyes darting between Danny and Dash, who was only just getting up off the floor.

“Meathead here tried to crash tackle Danny, but he dodged.” Sam answered quickly, startling Phantom. Was she here the whole time?

“That was actually a wicked good dodge, Fenton. Why haven’t you come to football tryouts? You’d make a pretty good halfback.” Kwan chimed in, his love for football seeming to temporarily overshadow his need to help his popular friend. Danny gave him an incredulous look that Phantom knew meant “because you and the football team have bullied me for years?”.

“Baxter, is this true?” Mr Lancer questioned. Dash may get preferential treatment, but this was hard to ignore.

“Actually sir, I’m pretty sure it was an accident. It looked like he was just trying to catch a ball and didn’t see me in the way.” Danny interrupted, much to everyone, including Phantom’s, surprise. Mr Lancer visibly sagged with relief.

“Oh, that’s good to hear that it’s just a misunderstanding. Baxter, next time no playing ball in the hallway. Now everyone get back to class!” He barked, before pivoting back in the direction of the English classroom.

“Psst! Danny! What the fuck was that? Dash was actually going to be punished for once. Why did you help him?” Sam whispered frustratedly. Phantom couldn’t help but agree with her. Dash was trying to _hurt_ him. He should get _punished_. Danny offered a dismissive shrug.

“The whole point of punishment is that the person learns not to do it again. He already got that from being humiliated in front of everyone. Besides, bailing him out of trouble is going to make it harder for him to justify to himself that he needs to exact some sort of revenge, and his confusion will give us time to relax and focus on issues I actually care about.” He explained. That was…really mature. Compared to Phantom’s first thought which was to punch Dash in the face for wanting to hurt his human half. The more he thought about it, the more he realised that the anger had less to do with Dash and more to do with being afraid of his human half being hurt, and angry at himself for nearly not being there to protect him. Sam didn’t seem to admire the decision as much and huffed with an annoyed expression, silent for the remainder of the walk to class.

~

Luckily, the rest of the school day went off without a hitch. Danny could tell Dash had been staring daggers at him, but he couldn’t care less. He was too happy that Phantom hadn’t left him again. Even though he was disappointed that being able to hear and touch his ghost side was only temporary, it was still an improvement and a sign that he was getting his strength back.

As soon as Danny stepped into his room, he felt a cold sensation pass through his lips. Danny chuckled as he set his bag down and closed the door.

“Eager, aren’t we?” He joked, before willing himself to go ghost.

…

Coming to, he was sitting at his desk with his homework out and partially done. He sighed.

“Phantom, you don’t have to- never mind. Thank you.” Danny said in a defeated tone. He hit play on the recording device, listening to Phantom describe his encounter with Ember earlier that day as he continued on the worksheet in front of him. It was weird, hearing the assumptions of someone who didn’t know what he was and had to guess.

“It sounds like she thinks I control you to do my bidding or something. I wonder how many ghosts think the same thing.” Danny thought out loud once the message was finished. It would kind of suck, if most of them did. He wasn’t some power-hungry human enslaving a trapped ghost to serve a vendetta against other ghosts. He was just a boy who got ghost powers. A guilty feeling crept up his spine. If they end up stuck split like this forever, is that what he would be? A human trapping a ghost against their will? A knock at the door snapped him out of his spiral.

“Come in.” He called out, before hearing the door open.

“Hey Danny, I heard you were doing better in school so I thought I’d bring you a treat to say “good job!” and all that.” Jazz greeted cheerfully. He turned toward her to see she was holding a plate of homemade cookies. Danny broke into an excited smile, before confusion took over his expression.

“Wait, where did you hear that?” He asked.

“One of your teachers called to ask if anything has changed about our home life because they noticed a dramatic improvement in focus and behaviour. It was a little fast, so they were a little worried, but I just let them know that you’ve been trying really hard to manage your mental health without being allowed to go on medication. I figured that would get you some more slack in class.” She explained, conveniently hiding which teacher it was.

“Uh…thanks, I guess.” He mumbled, reaching for the plate. Jazz suddenly stepped back out of his reach with a cheeky grin.

“Nu-uh! These are for after dinner.” Jazz laughed at the groan her comment earned, before gesturing for him to follow her out of the room. He looked outside and realised how dark it had gotten. It made sense, between the time Phantom spent talking, the time he took listening to the message, and the amount of time he spent spiralling negatively. Still, losing time every time Phantom was in control was jarring. Hopefully it wouldn’t be long until he could see and hear his ghost half so they wouldn’t have to switch to talk to each other.

Once dinner was finished, Danny grabbed the plate of cookies and darted back upstairs. He continued to plough through his homework, the cookies providing excellent fuel and encouragement. He got about halfway through the cookies before wondering if Phantom would want any. Danny almost scoffed at himself. Of course he did!

“Hey, Phantom? I’m done with my homework, so I’m going to give you free reign for a while. Have as many cookies as you want, too. I mean, they’re still going in my stomach, so who cares?” Danny stated warmly, before going Ghost.

~

Phantom cheered to himself as he gained control of their body. The cookies looked so delicious, but he didn’t think he’d get the chance to taste them. It was so kind of his human half to do this for him. Picking up his phone, he texted Tucker asking him if he was down for some time dicking around in the latest MMO they were obsessed with, World Edge Online. With an enthusiastic yes back, he called his friend while waiting for the game to load.

“Danny! Great timing! I just finished my homework.” The voice of Tucker greeted through his headphones. The name caused Phantom to flinch. There was no doubt that Tucker had assumed that he was the other Danny. Should he correct him? Did it even matter?

“Yeah. Human Danny just finished too, so he’s letting me have control for a bit.” Phantom replied casually. He wasn’t sure what he would do if his friend was uncomfortable with him and didn’t want to hang, but the anxiety in his gut told him it wasn’t going to be a dignified reaction. Tucker chuckled to himself obnoxiously.

“Mom says it’s my turn in the body.” He joked in a whiny kid voice. Phantom snorted.

“Shut up, you meme lord.” He retorted fondly.

Eventually they had to stop once they hit Tucker’s new daily gaming time limit, a rule his parents started enforcing recently as a sad attempt to stave off the addiction. With a quick goodbye, he hung up and looked at the time. It was late enough that it wouldn’t be too weird to go to bed, but still early enough that he could still go for a joy flight around town and still get to bed at a reasonable time when he got back. As much as he lived for the feeling of flying, he found himself wanting to go to bed. It didn’t take long for it to click why. He wanted to be able to interact with his human half again. He pulled out the recorder and made a message saying thanks for the cookies and detailed the shenanigans he and Tucker got up to in the game, before relinquishing control.

He left their body and turned to face it in time to see his human half giving a little head shake as he became aware again. He watched his expression shift into a giddy smile as he listened to the recording and felt his core pulse faster. It was really sweet how invested his human half was in him having a good time. Phantom sighed as he wondered if all the good went to his human side in the split. It would explain why he was so…

A memory he couldn’t quite reach raced through his mind and was gone before he could chase it. He couldn’t define it beyond it feeling…primal. Phantom furrowed his brow, straining to understand what just happened. It was similar to what happened every time he felt othered from his human self, and that scared him. Realising that his other self had left the room, he darted out after him, following him into the bathroom. As the human began brushing his teeth, Phantom stopped himself mid-reach from touching his lips. There was no real reason for interrupting him. Even if it was important, Phantom had no idea where to even begin articulating what was happening, so what was the point? Reluctantly, he floated back to their room and waited by the bed.

It took way less time for Danny to fall asleep this time, much to Phantom’s relief. He relaxed onto the bed and let out tired sigh. He reached out and gently took hold of the sleeping boy’s wrist and pulled it toward himself to drape the arm over his waist. He was about to roll over and assume the same sleeping position as the previous night when his mind flashed to the group hug from that morning, and how he had wished his human self had been a part of it. He snaked an arm around his human half’s upper back, and the arm on his waist unconsciously pulled him closer and the sleeping boy pressed his face into Phantom’s collarbone. If he pretended Danny was awake, this was exactly what he had been wanting. As he buried his nose into the human’s hair, he felt himself drift off to sleep.

Phantom startled awake to the sound of a motorcycle revving. Looking around, he saw that it was still the middle of the night, and that his human half was still asleep. Wanting to keep it that way, he flew out the window to try and shut up whoever was making all that racket, although he was pretty sure who he’d find. Sure enough, Johnny 13 was there on his bike doing donuts, while Kitty watched him with a lovesick grin.

“Hey! Can you please knock that out?” He called out, causing the pair to jolt in surprise. Johnny looked up at him and gave a surprisingly happy smile.

“If it isn’t half the halfa! Come check this out!” Johnny 13 greeted, before immediately going back to doing donuts. Phantom slapped his forehead.

“What did I just say?” He grumbled. Kitty let out a giggle and floated up to Phantom’s level.

“He’s been trying to spell out my name in skid marks to impress me. He’s an idiot, but he’s my idiot.” She explained, ending with another giggle and returning her gaze to Johnny 13. Danny followed her line of sight and realised that yes, the marks did roughly resemble the word “kit”.

“Where’s that human of yours? You never seem to go anywhere without each other.” Kitty asked, making polite conversation.

_Does every ghost get friendlier when you’re fully ghost?_

“He’s actually trying to sleep right now, which was why I was trying to get Johnny to pipe it down.” He commented dryly, trying not to sound too annoyed. Didn’t want to be rude and ruin the polite streak. Kitty’s eyes widened.

“Oh! Sorry! I wasn’t even thinking about the humans. We’ll take off, Johnny can get over not finishing his masterpiece.” She assured, before flying over to Johnny 13.

“Baby, we’re being too loud. You’re going to wake up his human.” She warned, gripping onto his shoulder. He gave a light hearted scoff and smirked up at Phantom.

“Boy, he sure does have you on a tight leash.” He commented.

“I- wha- No he doesn’t! I just want him to get a full night’s sleep!” Phantom stammered, crossing his arms defensively. Why do ghosts keep thinking he was some sort of pet? Johnny 13 broke into a roaring laugh, Kitty joining in with a chuckle.

“Oh man, you are so whipped.” He wheezed. Phantom felt like his brain had been removed and thrown against the side of the house.

“WHAT?! No! We’re not- NO!” Phantom awkwardly argued.

“Oh, as if! You can’t spend that much time in someone’s body and not at least _think_ of being intimate with them. ” Kitty countered mirthfully. Phantom tried to reply, but found nothing coming out of his mouth. With one final laugh, the pair took off down the street on Johnny 13’s motorcycle and disappeared around the corner.

Noise pollution dealt with, Phantom returned to his room. Thankfully, Danny was still asleep and hadn’t heard any of that. Laying back down, he grabbed Danny’s arm and put it back on his waist before realising what he was doing. He’d gotten so caught up in how good it felt he had forgotten how awkward and intimate it all was. Phantom stared at his human half’s face, fighting the temptation to wake him just so he could get confirmation that what they were doing was okay. His eyes naturally zoned in on the sleeping boy’s lips. He’d been touching them all day to signal when he wanted to talk, but he hadn’t really been touching them. What would they feel like? They were his own lips and he had no idea. They looked like they’d be soft. Would it really be that weird to touch them? Just to satisfy a curiosity? Tentatively, Phantom inched his hand closer to his human half’s face and ever so gently brushed his lower lip with his thumb.

_Oh, wow. They really are soft._

Curiosity turning into fascination, he swiped his thumb slighter harder, just enough force to tug his lips apart. Phantom froze when the boy in front of him let out a soft sigh. It was weird admitting it, even to himself, but he found it cute. Phantom couldn’t help but wonder if he would make a similar sound if he kissed him –

_No! Stop stupid brain! Kitty and Johnny are just getting to my head! I’m not attracted to Danny – I mean, myself! Danny is me not another person! Even though he kind of technically is a different person to me right now because we have separate thoughts and experiences…but that’s beside the point! Even if I was totally into the idea of kissing Danny, which I am NOT, there’s no way he’d be into it. I can’t –_

Phantom’s panicked mental spiral was shot dead when after a little moan, the sleeping boy pouted his lips and kissed into the thumb that was for some reason still on his mouth. He lay there frozen as his brain tried to acknowledge what had just happened. Before he could pretend he imagined it, his sleeping half pressed yet another kiss into his thumb. Stepping over the corpse of his old panic was his new and improved panic.

_Fuck, he’s sleep kissing! He doesn’t know he’s doing it! Ugh, why does it feel so nice!_

Before he could stop himself, he was imagining how good it would feel on his lips instead of his thumb. It would be so easy to make it a reality. All he’d have to do was lean a little bit closer. But he couldn’t. Even if he wanted to, which he didn’t, he could never kiss Danny without knowing if it was something he wanted.

“Phantom…” Danny mumbled, before pulling closer to him and starting to use open mouth kisses.

_Well, if it’s just because it feels nice and it doesn’t have to mean anything…_

Phantom removed his hand from in front of his human half’s face, and when the boy went to chase it, he caught the human’s lips with his own. As soon as they made contact, it was like fireworks going off in his brain and like eating chocolate for the first time all at once. All thought had shut except for _more, more, more!_ He leaned further into it, automatically opening his mouth when he felt Danny do the same. His hand caressed his human half’s cheek before burrowing into his dark tresses. His other hand phased through the bed so he could reach around to Danny’s back and pull him as close as he could get. The boy moaned, and suddenly Phantom felt a leg swing up and wrap around his own, as the human’s hand on his back shifted to grip his hip while the other slid under his face to cup his cheek. Phantom burst his eyes open, ignoring the fact that he had no idea when he closed them. This kissing was getting far too animated for someone who was asleep. As if to confirm his suspicions, the eyes in front of him also opened. They both froze. Suddenly, Danny was screaming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to quote an old meme: well that escalated quickly


	6. Lying to Yourself (In More Ways Than One)

Danny looked down at the white suit and black gloves he was wearing with foggy eyes. When his eyes drifted upwards, he saw the Ghost Portal turned off.

_I must be dreaming about the day of the accident again._

It was unusual, though. Usually the dreams started at when the machine was turned on and the pain that came with it. Somehow, starting before the pain only to know it was coming was worse. His feet carried him into the portal, just like they had in real life. The next moments remained true as well.

Wires, trip, “ON” switch.

What came next changed. This time, instead of it being too fast and painful to comprehend, time appeared to be moving in slow motion. He could tell what was happening now; the portal was opening _through_ his body, tearing him apart at the molecular seams. He was about to die. Scratch that, he was already dying. He wanted to call out for Sam or Tucker to turn off the machine somehow, but his mouth was busy screaming. He remembered a thought he’d had in the moment. A prayer he’d sent out to the universe.

_Save me! Please!_

Suddenly, a cold energy collided with him, clinging on to him and sinking into his cells. As it merged with him, it joined in his screams as an extra layer of fear and pain piled on top of what he was already feeling. The energy pulled at his molecules, desperate to keep them together and stop the pain.

_Is this what destruction feels like?_

Danny blanched. That wasn’t his thought. The energy pulled his cells in tighter. The pain, while still insurmountable, was easing. The force destroying him was being fought against. The thought must have been his. Yes, he was certain of it now.

_“Danny!”_

With that cry from his memory, his dream flashed and suddenly he was in the school hallway. It must have been his memory from earlier today, judging by what everyone was wearing. It was strange, he couldn’t remember any construction going on, but he heard something that sounded like a chainsaw.

“Danny! Look out!” The memory of Phantom called out. Funny, he knew it was Phantom, but it also sounded like the thought he heard during the accident that he mistook for coming from someone else. It sort of made sense though, because Phantoms voice was his own voice. It must have just been ghostly energy making it sound different enough to confuse him. Danny anticipated being pushed to the side as it had happened at school, but this time Phantom instead scooped him up into a bridal carry. As Danny felt his ghost half’s arms seeping a chill through his clothes, he was delighted that the physical touch was lasting longer in this dream.

“Phantom? What are you doing rescuing a loser like him?” Dash whined from the floor. The ghost growled at the bully, his angry energy radiating in a threatening way. Danny quickly brought a hand up to Phantom’s cheek, snapping the ghost’s attention away from the boy on the floor.

“Don’t. He’s not worth it.” Danny urged, hoping that caressing his thumb over the apple of his cheek calmed him. Phantom leaned into the touch like a starving man leans into a burger. It was strange, but since separating from Phantom he’s been kind of enjoying the effect his physical touch as had on his ghost half. It made him feel needed. Wanted. Seeing the reaction gave Danny an idea.

“Besides, I can think of something that will mess with him way more.” He whispered, slowly leaning in towards his ghost half’s face. He closed his eyes and pressed gentle, pouted kiss into Phantom’s lips. They felt cold, but in a refreshing way as usual. Pulling away, he opened his eyes to see that the ghost looked completely dazed. Danny chuckled at the look on his face. He wondered how many times he could kiss Phantom before he would snap out of it. He leant back in and gave a firmer, longer kiss. Then a couple of quick ones. Phantom still wasn’t snapping out of it. It was getting ridiculous. His ghost half has been going nuts over any physical contact, so why isn’t he reacting now?

“Phantom…” Danny complained. He’d have to up his game. Leaning back in once more, Danny kissed Phantom again, this time parting his lips and allowing his tongue to brush against the ghost’s lips. This seemed to finally whir his other half to life, as suddenly he was being kissed back quite emphatically. Danny gasped. Somehow, being kissed back completely changed the game. It felt like eating pop rocks and jumping into the ocean on an eighty-five degree day all at once. He felt himself get lowered onto a bed, and now they had their hands gripping at each other as they lay pressed against each other’s bodies. A tug at Danny’s hair forced him to moan as the kiss deepened. He was being pulled closer, but it wasn’t enough. He wrapped a leg around Phantom and pressed his pelvis into the ghost. The jolt the action sent rippling through his body made everything feel so much more real.

Too real. Danny forced his eyes open and froze in fear. He was kissing a ghost. Not only that, it didn’t look like his ghost self. Realising he had no idea who this ghost he was wrapped around was, he let out a terrified scream. If it didn’t get Phantom’s attention to come help, it’d at least get Jazz’s attention, and if he was desperate, his parents’. He scrambled away from the ghost in his bed as it quickly let go of him. Suddenly, it was way to hot in the room, like he’d stepped into a giant oven. Did the ghost give him a fever? Taking a better look at the ghost, he could see traits it had in common with Phantom. It had white hair and was wearing the black jumpsuit, but the face was different. The skin looked like it was under a black light and speckled with glowing freckles that reminded him of star constellations, the ears were slightly pointed, and the eyes were completely glowing ectoplasm green. It looked panicked as it floated above the bed.

“Danny, I’m sorry! I don’t know why I did that!” It apologised with a pleading tone, hands fidgeting as though it wanted to reach out to him but knew it was a bad idea. The voice was so familiar to him. It sounded so much like his own, but distorted. Just like…

Suddenly, the door to his bedroom was kicked in and Jazz burst in wielding a blaster. She aimed it at the ghost with a fierce expression.

“Back away from my brother!” She warned. The ghost’s eyes widened with fear and confusion.

“Jazz?” Was all it managed to get out. Yes, it definitely sounded like –

“I said “back away”!” She repeated, re-aiming the gun in a threatening way.

“Wait! Jazz, don’t!” Danny called out, scrambling to get between the blaster and the ghost. He turned to face it.

“Phantom? Is that you?” He asked cautiously. The confusion on the ghost’s face increased, but he nodded. Danny knew this could be a trick, but the more he looked at the ghost, the more he knew it was his ghost half, despite his appearances.

“Why do you look like that?” Danny asked. Phantom raised a hand to his own face, touching it experimentally.

“Look like what?” Phantom questioned.

“Danny, what is going on? What do you mean this is Phantom?” Jazz interrupted, causing Danny to spin back and see her reluctantly lowering her blaster.

“Uhh…” Both halves sounded at the same time.

_I forgot I put off telling her what happened…_

Before either human or ghost could explain, Danny heard the tell-tale sounds of his father thundering up the stairs. Within seconds his mom and dad burst into his room, one with the Fenton Foamer and the other with the Fenton Bazooka.

“Where is it? Where’s the ghost?!” His dad exclaimed frantically, eyes darting around the room manically. The fact that neither of them clocked Phantom behind him told him that the ghost had managed to turn invisible in time.

“Y-You just missed it, guys. When it saw me with the blaster it took off terrified.” Jazz lied, gesturing to the window. Their parents slumped, before their mom perked up again.

“At least I can be proud of my little girl protecting her little brother.” She cooed, followed by their dad giving her a big thump on the back which sent her stumbling forward awkwardly.

“Anyway, Danny and I should really be going back to bed, so why don’t you guys head back downstairs and get back to whatever you were working on?” Jazz suggested. They seemed torn between asking about the ghost and going back to their science hijinks for a moment, before the urge for hijinks appeared to win. With a quick farewell, the couple skipped out of the room. The three left in the room let out a sigh of relief.

“Okay, now that’s handled…what the hell is going on? Did you use the Ghost Catcher again?” Jazz whispered frantically.

_Ooh, boy. Here we go._

“We didn’t use the Catcher again. We’re not actually sure why we’re split.” Danny revealed, trying not to flinch when he saw Phantom reappear in his peripheral vision next to him. Jazz’s expression snapped to deep concern, before she stumbled over to his desk and dropped into his chair.

“It started off with not being able to remember what we did as a ghost while we were human and vice versa.” He continued. The look in Jazz’s eyes told him that the gears in her mind might catch on fire if they turned any faster.

“Then I woke up outside our body completely intangible. I could only communicate when he gave me control of our body. I’ve only gained independent visibility and tangibility just now.” Phantom chimed in, floating closer to Jazz and further into Danny’s line of sight. Now that the “I don’t know who this is” fear had faded, Danny was able to properly appreciate the new aesthetic of his ghost half. He looked kind of like a galactic elf at a rave. It was strangely beautiful. Danny felt a pang of… something in his stomach. Was it jealousy? Did he wish _he_ could also turn into some sort of hot elf? At the thought of the word ‘hot’ Danny was once again aware of how on fire he felt. Was there something wrong with the AC? A groan and a thud snapped his attention back to his sister. She was leaning her elbows on her knees with her face buried in her hands.

“So that’s why you needed the voice recorder.” She sounded pretty disappointed, which made Danny worried. What did Phantom say it was for?

“Don’t be disappointed, Jazz. He _has_ been trying harder with getting work done, even if I did fib about that one thing.” Phantom blurted out, rushing to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. Jazz looked up at Phantom with shiny eyes.

“I’m not disappointed about your homework, Danny. I’m disappointed by how this has been affecting you for days and you haven’t talked to me about it. How am I meant to help you if I have no idea something is wrong?” She explained, voice wobbling with emotion. Guilt hit his gut.

“I’m sorry Jazz. I didn’t mean to keep putting off telling you. I’ve been pretty…distracted lately.” Danny apologised, eyes darting between Phantom and the floor. A snort from the ghost brought his full attention to him.

“Totally thought you were gonna say “scatter-brained” or something.” Phantom explained, looking a little guilty about his inappropriate reaction. Danny felt a smile tug at his lips.

“Nope, but I was tempted to say “my attention has been divided”.” He replied, giving a playful wink towards his other half. A groan erupted from Jazz.

“I hate it when there is two of you.” She complained lowly, pressing a palm to her forehead. Suddenly, she sat straight up as if realising something.

“Wait, why did you scream earlier?” She asked, looking completely puzzled.

“Oh! That’s right! Phantom, what the fuck happened to your face?” Danny asked, turning to his ghost counterpart. Phantom’s expression contorted, clearly insulted by the question.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean? What’s wrong with my face?” He asked, pouting. Did Phantom have no idea that his appearance had changed?

“It’s not my face, for starters.” Danny answered blankly. Phantoms eyes went wide.

“What?!” He yelped, before flying towards the mirror and letting out a whine at the sight of his face.

“What the fuck? Why do I look like this?” He cried out, hands grabbing at his face and ears. Danny winced. It wasn’t that bad. In fact, Danny had no idea why Phantom was upset. He looked great like this. Either way, his ghost seemed pretty distressed. Danny walked over to him and pulled his hands away from his face, drawing comforting circled into the back of one of them with his thumb. The ghost’s cool touch brought relief to how overheated he felt, and it took all his will power to not press his face into his ghost half’s neck to cool it down. He needed to focus on what was bothering Phantom.

“Maybe this is what we’d look like if we didn’t have any human DNA?” He suggested casually, hoping to normalise it and help the other feel better. Phantom looked at their hands and sighed as the tension in his shoulders relaxed. The physical contact seemed to be helping calm him down. Danny was beyond happy that he could actually comfort Phantom properly now. These past couple of days had been tough.

“That would explain why the ghosts could all immediately tell I was just our ghost side.” Phantom finally replied. Danny did a double take.

“All? You’ve talked to other ghosts since Ember?” At Danny’s question, Phantom wore a thoughtful frown.

“Yeah. Johnny and Kitty were outside and had a really similar reaction. Completely unfazed to see me on my own and treated me as if I had always been a separate entity from you. They even – uh… it’s not important.” Phantom cut himself off, squirming awkwardly and refusing to make eye contact. Danny _hated_ seeing his ghost half like this.

“Phantom… did they make you uncomfortable?” He asked. Phantom cringed, before giving a series of small, quick nods. He was still squirming and avoiding eye contact. Was that because of what the ghosts did or was it because Danny was still holding his hands? He winced, remembering the fact that he had kissed Phantom in his sleep like a fucking creep.

“Am I making you uncomfortable?” Danny questioned, quickly letting go of the ghosts hands and taking a slight step back from him. Phantom’s face morphed into panic as he quickly surged forward to keep the same distance between them.

“No! I mean, it’s just what they said got in my head.” He answered, face calming down to schooled neutral expression. Danny frowned. It was clear that whatever Johnny and Kitty said or did had to do with him, otherwise Phantom wouldn’t be trying to cover it up. Did they also think he was enslaving Phantom? When Phantom said it got in his head, did that mean that he was starting to feel trapped? He tried to lock eye contact with his ghost half, hoping to be able to read his expression to see what he was really feeling. Phantom looked uneasy and broke the eye contact, turning his face away.

“Jazz? Are you okay? You look like you’re doing moon landing formulas in your head.” If that was meant to distract Danny, it worked. He followed where Phantom was looking to see that Jazz indeed looked like if she thought any harder equations would start floating around her head. There was a few moments of tense silence before she raised her eyes to them.

“Danny, did…this happen after you had that weird dream? The one that felt like a memory that wasn’t yours?” She asked. Danny thought back and realised that it was true.

“Yeah. Why do you ask?” Her lips pursed at the question and she appeared to be debating with herself about if she should say anything.

“I have a theory about what is going on, but I’m not sure so I shouldn’t talk about it until I’ve thought about it more. Give me some time, I promise I’ll get back to you.” She revealed, before standing up from his chair.

“We should all get back to bed. I’ll talk to you in the morning.” She farewelled, before quietly making her way back to the doorway.

“Goodnight!” Danny and Phantom chimed in unison. Jazz gave them both a soft smile.

“Danny? Phantom? Stay safe, okay?”

~

Once Jazz had left the room, the pair found themselves standing in an awkward silence. Phantom fretted internally, wondering if Danny was going to try to press him about what happened with Johnny and Kitty or if he was going to drop it. Even worse, was he going to bring up the fact that they were kissing?

“Well, you heard her. Back to bed.” Danny said with a casual sigh before stepping back toward the bed. Phantom glanced at his reflection.

“Give me a minute. I’m going to see if I can change back to normal.” He informed.

“Wait, don’t! I mean, why?” Danny awkwardly fumbled. Phantom narrowed his eye brows, watching the action play out in his reflection. 

_Why? Shouldn’t it be obvious? Because you screamed when you saw me! Because all I know is your face. No! OUR face! **OURS**._

What was wrong with him? He had a monster face for all of two seconds and he was already losing his sense of self?

“Phantom?” The concerned voice to his side snapped him out of his spiral. Turning, he saw that Danny had crept up to him. The human reached out and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. The warmth spread through him, helping him feel centred again. Danny was so damn good at that. How many times has he been on the verge of a mental breakdown and Danny had been able to swoop in and save him? He shook his head. It was too many times. He should stop worrying his human half.

“Sorry. It’s just weird to look at. Also, I think it would be better for me to look normal in case any humans see me. The ghosts may be chill, but I doubt humans will be too.” It wasn’t a lie, not really. Danny seemed to think about it, until something seemed to occur to him and his expression became determined.

“At the end of the day, it’s your face. If you want to change it or keep it, that’s up to you, not me.” Danny stated, letting go of his shoulder and stepping back. Phantom smiled gratefully. Any ghost that thought his human half was forcing him to do things against his will could suck it. Phantom turned back to the mirror and began focusing on shifting his appearance. The power came easily, his features quickly melting back into how he usually looked when he was transformed. Phantom sighed. The face in front of him was comforting. It helped him feel closer to Danny and to being his old self again.

“Finally. Now let’s get back to bed. If we’re lucky we might get a couple of hours of sleep before school in the morning.” Danny commented, before once again making his way to the bed, now with Phantom trailing behind him. It was only when his human half was climbing under the sheets that Phantom suddenly realised that he didn’t know what he should do. He wanted to go back to cuddling, but it suddenly felt awkward now that his human counterpart would be awake for it. Especially after they had kissed. Danny looked up at him expectantly, holding the sheets up as he waited for him. Not wanting to take too long, Phantom quickly settled on getting in the bed, but also trying to maintain as much distance from Danny as possible. The human wore a troubled expression.

“Phantom, I wanted to say that I’m sorry for accidentally kissing you earlier. It must have been really confusing for you to wake up to that.” Danny apologised genuinely. Phantom scoffed. He was confused, alright. He had decided that he would definitely not kiss his human half, but as soon as Danny said his name and made him feel like for a second that the human wanted him that decision flew out the window. Knowing now that it was an accident, he felt ashamed of taking advantage of him. Luckily, Danny hadn’t realised that Phantom was awake when he was kissing back, so at least for now the human wasn’t going to be creeped out by him.

“I can’t exactly promised that it won’t happen again because I did it in my sleep, so if you’re creeped out I can sleep on the floor.” Danny suggested softly, pulling the sheets off of himself. Oh no. Phantom was too caught up in his own shame that he forgot that Danny thought he was being the creepy one in the situation.

“Danny, stop. You didn’t do anything wrong. If I hadn’t… been cuddling up to you then your subconscious probably would have never gone to kissing.” Phantom lied, like a coward.

“Don’t blame yourself for this, Phantom. You’re touched starved, so you needed to be held. Ugh, and now because I wanted to piss off Dash in a dream I’ve ruined it for you.” Danny groaned, bringing his hands up to his face. Phantom couldn’t take it anymore.

“I liked it! I mean, you didn’t ruin anything. It felt really good. There’s something about your touch that just…can’t feel bad, you know? Wait, that came out weird.” Phantom rambled awkwardly. Apparently only planning what you’re going to say as far as ‘don’t confess that you started it’ resulted in making other confessions that were almost as embarrassing. As Danny peeked out from his hands, Phantom contemplated turning invisible or sinking into the bed out of embarrassment. With the hands taken away, Phantom couldn’t help but notice the way his human half’s skin glistened under his ghostly glow. A coy smile spread across the human’s features.

“So it’s just my touch that feels like that, nobody else’s? That probably means it’s because this is your body. When you’re touching me you feel like you’re still connected. I can imagine that would feel good, even if it’s through kissing.” Danny contemplated, cheeks flushing.

“It feels good for me too. The touching, that is. When I feel stressed I get way too hot. Way hotter than I ever felt when we were one, especially tonight between having no idea who was in my room and the guilt from… y’know. I think my body got used to our icy core and can’t regulate heat anymore. Whenever you’ve touched me, even when it was only cold whooshes, it’s felt so refreshing.” The human confessed, his blush only deepening and spreading. Phantom realised that the glistening skin was actually sweat. Physiological proof that Danny needed him just as much as he needed Danny. He reached out and cupped his hand around his human half’s cheek, eliciting a sigh of relief.

“Do you need me to hold you? To help you cool down?” Phantom asked nervously.

“You don’t have to. I already feel better just from this. Do you need me to hold you?”

_Yes!_

“N-No.”

_Coward._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the positive feedback so far!
> 
> After getting more into the fandom, I have discovered that nobody really cares about what is canon, so from now on I guess I'm just going to do what ever I want haha
> 
> Next time: The duo discovers that Phantom's body isn't the only one going through changes.


	7. Growing Apart

Danny woke up with a comforting weight on his chest. Knowing that he put his weighted blanket away, he was pretty sure what, or rather who was on top of him. Opening his eyes, he smiled at the sight of Phantom draped over his abdomen, his face pressed into his sternum while one of his hands was clutching the shirt material over his pectoral. A cold patch on his back told him that the ghost’s other arm was hugging his back, but seeing as he felt like he was flat against the bed he figured the ghost had phased his arm into the bed to avoid making him uncomfortable. Although, considering how Phantom had insisted last night that he didn’t need to be held, Danny assumed this development had occurred while the ghost was asleep. He wasn’t about to judge though, especially because of what he himself had done in his sleep. He looked at his resting ghost half with a sleepy smile. It was nice being able to see him at all, let alone be able to see him with such a peaceful expression. Absentmindedly, he trailed his hand up Phantom’s back, marvelling at how smooth the suit was. He was struggling to recall if he had touched it with his bare hands during the last split, as the overlapping memories were confusing him. Curious to know what his hair felt like, he shifted his hand further up into Phantom’s hairline, raking his fingers across his scalp. The white locks still felt like real hair, which caught him off guard before he realised it kind of made sense. Hair is dead after all. Still, it felt like very soft hair, like when Jazz used a hair mask and made him touch her hair to prove how nice it was. A soft hum emitted from Phantom, and his lips curled into a little smile. It was cute. Suspiciously cute. He had a feeling last night that when Phantom shifted back to his normal appearance he had unfairly kept some of how hot his new face was, because he could still see elements of it poking through and honestly, Danny was never _that_ attractive. He groaned.

_Stop calling your other self attractive, you narcissistic prick!_

Regrettably, the groan seemed to wake up Phantom, who was now stirring. His little smile was turning into a confused frown as the hand on his chest unclasped his shirt and began feeling around curiously. Phantom’s eyes slowly opened, before locking onto Danny and realising where he was. With a startled yelp, the ghost was flinging himself back and floating in the air.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to –”

“Calm down, man. I thought I made it clear last night that I like cuddling too. You can do it whenever you want.” Danny interrupted, hoping to reassure his ghost half. The hopeful gleam in his eyes told him it worked.

“Really? Not just when I need it?” He asked, caution mixing with hope in his tone. Danny couldn’t help but chuckle lightly as he sat up at how innocent Phantom seemed. It was very endearing.

“The way I see it, if you want a hug, then you need a hug.” Danny explained with a shrug. With only a bright smile as a warning, Phantom was zooming back at him and roughly colliding into him with a hug, legs straddling his hips and arms winding around his shoulders as his face buried into his neck. Unfortunately, the sudden friction on his groin had a fairly automatic reaction from Danny Jr. Panicking, he wondered if Phantom could feel the change underneath him, or tell how much he was heating up.

“Are you okay Danny? You said you heat up when you’re stressed. Is this stressing you out?” Phantom asked, leaning away from his neck and shifting his weight as he sat up, which only made the problem worse.

“I’m just thinking about if I’ll have time to shower and eat if we keep hugging forever.” He covered, hopefully without sounding nervous at all. He really couldn’t handle if Phantom pushed the issue, innuendo not intended. Luckily, Phantom didn’t seem to notice anything was up (again, innuendo not intended!) and floated away from him. Instantly, Danny made a dash for the door to minimise the chance that Phantom would get a peek at his boxers.

After his cold shower, Danny returned to his room with a towel wrapped around his waist and began picking out what to wear for the day.

“Whoa, I thought I imagined it.” Phantom commented.

“What?!” Danny yelped, checking the towel to see if he had pitched a tent without realising. Phantom floated over and poked his bicep.

“You’ve definitely grown more muscles since we split. Shit, you might be taller too.” Phantom explained with a fascinated expression. Danny looked at his body properly. He was startled to realise that there was definitely at least more tone in his biceps and abs.

“I’m probably just dehydrated. There’s no way I gained muscle and height that noticeably over three days.” Danny replied dismissively. After a lacklustre puberty, Danny had no hope that some of his dad’s genes would suddenly decide to kick in at eighteen. He pulled on a black t-shirt, ignoring how snug it felt. It probably just shrunk slightly in the wash. Deciding he didn’t want to risk finding out his blue jeans didn’t fit, he went for the black jeans that were longer and had a bit of give. They felt way too constricting. He much preferred looser fitting clothes. This makes him feel exposed.

“If you pair that with the black and white vans people would think it’s a me themed outfit.” Phantom teased, opting to float upside down. Danny smiled at his ghost half. It was great he was in a better mood than last night. The hug offer must have made all the difference. He contemplated the joke suggestion. Normally he’d avoid looking like his alter ego, but with Phantom separated it would be all too easy to prove to anyone they weren’t the same person. The black and white vans were a size too big, but if he did have a sudden growth spurt…

“Huh…they fit.” He thought out loud.

_Well, better late than never!_

* * *

From the time he finished getting dressed to the entire journey to school, Phantom had decided to drape himself over Danny’s back invisibly. It was like the ghost was trying to make him regret saying they could cuddle any time.

“Hey, Phantom? I’m not sure if I can handle basically carrying you all day. I don’t think it would be good for my back.” Danny whispered. Suddenly, the weight lifted off of him.

“Sorry. Guess I got carried away.” Phantom whispered back from behind him.

“Literally.” Danny added under his breath with a grin, resulting in Phantom chuckling lightly. Even though another version of yourself is probably the easiest comedy audience, Danny couldn’t help but revel in making the ghost laugh. It was such a good laugh, he almost couldn’t believe it came from someone who was sort of him.

_No. Not sort of. Definitely him._

With the nerves from that thought, he felt his body rapidly heat up again. Before last night his overheating was just a nuisance that he could ignore, but ever since Phantom gained complete independence it had become feverish. Was it too soon to ask Phantom to drape over him again? Suddenly, a cold hand grasped his shoulder, radiating a refreshing coolness through him. Shit, could Phantom read his mind?

“Sorry. People are staring at you and it’s making me nervous.” Phantom whispered lowly. Danny glanced around himself at the students littering the entrance to the school. It didn’t look like anybody was looking at him. Either they looked away as soon as he looked, or Phantom was being paranoid. The latter was far more likely. He continued into the school, navigating the hallways until he reached where he usually met up with Sam and Tucker. As expected, the two were engaged in a heated discussion and hadn’t noticed he’d arrived.

“Why the hell would they need to put vegan options in a video game? It’s not like the digital roast chicken was made from a real chicken, so what’s the problem?” Tucker asked, seeming quite exasperated.

“The problem is the normalisation of meat-eating. They didn’t have to make eating animals a mechanic of the game, but they did it anyway.” Sam argued, crossing her arms. Danny rolled his eyes. If their arguments are getting this stupid they must be getting real bored.

“Hey guys! I have news!” Danny greeted cheerfully.

“Hey Danny, what’s u- uhhhhhhhhhh…” Sam began to ask as she turned to face him, before suddenly looking stunned as her eyes scanned up and down him with her mouth hanging open.

“What? What’s wrong? Is there something on me?” Danny asked, looking down at himself to inspect if he had accidentally spilled any of his breakfast on himself. Jazz did say he was going hog wild, so he wouldn’t be surprised if he got any on himself without realising.

“What’s wrong is you figured out how to patch upgrade puberty.exe and you didn’t tell me! What’s the secret, protein shakes?” Tucker complained. Danny blinked dumbly back at him.

“Huh?” He articulated brilliantly.

“Oh come on, dude! You’re taller, your shoulders are broader, your biceps are _fighting_ those sleeves, and your jawline suddenly actually has definition. You can’t tell me you haven’t noticed that you’ve basically turned into an Instagram thirst trap.” Tucker explained, jabbing his finger into the body parts he was describing, forcing Danny to try to swat him away awkwardly. He looked to Sam for help, but she was still just staring.

“Are you okay Sam?” He asked, brows furrowing in concern. Her mouth snapped shut and she closed her eyes as she shook her head.

“Sorry, was just caught off guard. Tucker’s right, you definitely look different. I didn’t mean to stare.” Sam apologised, still eying him cautiously. Danny shrugged.

“I did notice I was taller, and Phantom did tell me my muscles seemed bigger…” Danny mumbled.

“Oh! That reminds me. I have good news! Phantom has full control of his tangibility and visibility now.” Danny announced, gesturing to where he could still feel Phantom next to him. A hand became visible for a moment and gave a little wave before vanishing. Danny frowned in confusion. He assumed Phantom would say something. Was he upset about something?

“Good! You can try the ghost catcher after school today.” Sam replied with a relieved smile.

“Oh, right.” He had forgotten about that plan. He had forgotten about merging at all. Sam’s eye brows pulled together as she regarded his reaction.

“You are still going to try to merge back, right?” She questioned.

“Why should he? He could totally keep up with school and hang out with us without having to go fight ghosts all the time. This is what he wanted when he first used the Ghost Catcher only this time it’s actually stable and neither of him seem insane.” Tucker argued. Danny winced. He didn’t want to force all the hard work on Phantom. The idea of using him like that while he got to have fun and live a normal life made him feel sick. Temperature rising, Danny began to feel dizzy.

“ _Danny!_ ” Phantom whispered urgently, before Danny felt the ghost press up against his back, wrapping an arm around his waist and pressing the other hand to his forehead. The cool touch radiated through his body, centring and grounding him. Only when he opened his eyes did he realise that he had closed them. In front of him, both Sam and Tucker wore shocked expressions.

“Super Danny didn’t sound like _that_.” Tucker commented.

_Oh right, they haven’t heard Phantom on his own talk yet._

Meanwhile, Sam’s eyes were trained on his stomach, not dropping the disturbed look in her expression. Danny followed her line of sight and realised that while Phantom was invisible, you could still see where his arm was pressing into his waist and hand gripping the shirt by the way the material had shifted.

“Uh, thanks Phantom. I feel better now.” Danny thanked, giving a little pat to the hand on his stomach. With a last squeeze, he felt the ghost’s presence lift away from his body.

“I should explain. Ever since Phantom and I split, I’ve been having trouble regulating my own body heat. Phantom’s been helping me cool down whenever I get too hot.” Danny explained, choosing to exclude the relevance to his stress levels. There was no need to worry his friends more than they were.

“Dude, you’re getting hot flushes? Your metabolism must have skyrocketed or something. I mean, it would explain all this.” Tucker commented with a calculating, but impressed look as he gestured vaguely over Danny’s body. Before Danny could objectify to being objectified, the bell rang. Ignoring the look on Sam’s face which told him she wanted to keep talking, he turned and began walking to the locker room for first period.

~

Phantom felt tense. People had definitely been staring at Danny, but they all turned away whenever Danny went to look, so he couldn’t prove it. After listening to Sam and Tucker and finding out why people were staring somehow didn’t make him feel any better. He thought he’d calm down after finding out there wasn’t a threat of danger, but for some reason realising that these people were interested in Danny sunk an uncomfortable hole in his stomach. He wasn’t on high alert until he saw Paulina blocking Danny’s path in the hallway. Star was with her, but luckily she seemed too interested in looking at Paulina with a worried expression than she was in ogling Danny.

“Hey Danny! I love your outfit today, did your little goth girlfriend pick it out for you?” Paulina greeted in a sweet flowery tone as she leaned in to Danny’s space and fluttered her eyes at him. Red flashing lights and sirens went off in Phantom’s head.

_**BADBADBADBADBAD** -_

“Uh…she’s not my girlfriend.” Was all Danny managed to say as he looked confused and a tad overwhelmed. Paulina’s eyes lit up as she gasped excitedly. Phantom was sure she thought she looked cute, but all Phantom could see was a predator about to pounce.

“Great! So you’re single!” She exclaimed, before hip-checking Sam away from Danny’s side and latching onto him arm. Sam stumbled from the push into a bag that was on the floor and with a big yelp fell backwards, landing harshly on one of her hands.

“Oh wow, I can’t believe you’ve been hiding arms like this under such ugly little baggy shirts.” Paulina cooed, seemingly unaware of the damage she’d caused.

“Sam!” Danny cried out as he attempted to squirm out of Paulina’s grip. Tucker dropped down to the floor next to Sam and tentatively checked Sam’s arm as she held it to her chest with her other hand.

“Paulina! What the hell are you doing?” Star hissed, exasperated.

“Buzz off, Star. I’m busy.” Paulina snapped at her, causing the blonde to wince.

“Paulina get off me! Why would I be interested in you if you hurt my best friend?” Danny growled, finally managing to wriggling out of the girl’s clutches. Phantom couldn’t help but feel extremely satisfied by Danny’s reaction, and by Paulina’s shocked face as a result of it.

“ _You_ are rejecting _me_?” She whined in disbelief. Danny scoffed.

“Obviously.” He replied with an eye roll. Phantom was grinning with pride. That’s what she gets for touching Danny… and for hurting Sam. Star stepped forward and attempted to put a comforting hand on Paulina’s shoulder, but the blonde was quickly shoved away before the brunette stormed off in a huff.

“This has got to be at least sprained. You should really go to the nurse’s office.” Tucker assessed. Phantom turned to look at his friends on the floor and was surprised to see tears welling up in Sam’s eyes. It was strange that she was only starting to cry now and not when she had been hurt. Why the delayed response?

“I’ll take her to the nurse.” Star announced bluntly, crouching down and guiding Sam to her feet with hands to her waist.

“R-Really?” Tucker stammered, seemingly thrown off by his sudden proximity to the cute girl.

“Why would you help a so called “loser” like me?” Sam questioned with an untrusting tone. Star’s jaw clenched as she avoided eye contact with anyone.

“I just…really don’t want to be in the same room as Paulina right now.” She admitted through gritted teeth. Phantom figured that was enough for Danny and Tucker to leave it be, as they farewelled Sam and continued off towards the locker room.

For their senior year, the school decided to try putting their PE class at the beginning of the day in the hopes that burning through Dash’s excess energy would stop him from wailing on kids. While it worked to an extent, it almost wasn’t worth it to feel gross and sweaty for the rest of the day. It was moments like this where Phantom was glad to be separated from Danny. The memory of feeling uncomfortable in your own skin was a memory he could live without. As his human half got changed into his gym clothes, Phantom couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. Surely with how much he’s been heating up lately strong exercise would only make it worse.

“Uh oh. Dude, do you have a bigger pair of shorts? I don’t think Ms Tetslaff is going to be cool with how short those are on you. It can’t be following dress code.” He heard Tucker warn. Curious, he looked back at his human half and realised that the shorts that usually sat around his mid-thigh were looking more like they sat at a quarter of the way down his thighs. With this much skin exposed, Phantom realised that Danny’s lower half had undergone the same tone and definition transformation as his upper half. Phantom audibly gulped, despite how dry his mouth felt.

“Ugh, I know. Hopefully if I apologise and promise to buy new shorts she’ll let it slide this time.” Danny groaned, shutting his locker.

“On the plus side, if she calls you out it’s a win for gender equality.” Tucker joked, elbowing Danny in the ribs. Danny rolled his eyes as they left the locker room.

“Are you really concerned about equality, or do you just want to see girls in more revealing clothes?” He questioned.

“Nah dude, girls should be able to wear whatever they want. It’s not fair they get called out so much for stuff we get away with all the time.” Tucker replied, tone becoming more serious. Phantom smiled warmly at the comment. Tucker had really come a long way since they were fourteen.

“Damn straight, Foley. There’s hope for you yet.” Phantom turned to see Valerie behind them. She gave a playful wink to Tucker and playfully shoved him before strolling past. Tucker stared after her with a dazed expression, opening and shutting his mouth as if he were trying to speak and failing. Phantom chuckled in unison with Danny at their friend’s reaction. Maturing apparently hadn’t made it any easier for him to deal with pretty girls talking to him. Tucker shuddered.

“Stop it, you two. It’s creepy being mocked in surround sound, you know.” He complained, folding his arms grumpily.

“Sorry.” Both Phantom and Danny managed to say at the same time, resulting in Tucker giving a ridiculous huff and speeding up away from them. Phantom laughed, knowing that his friend was only annoyed and not genuinely upset. He floated alongside Danny as he made his way towards the football field. They’d been learning Flag Rugby that week, so class was outside.

“If you feel like you’re overheating at any point, double tap your shoulder and I’ll come to you.” Phantom offered after a long stretch of silence. Danny gave a bright smile nodded subtly in confirmation, probably conscious to not look like he was talking to himself. He was, but not in the way that an observer would assume.

Seeing Sam in the bleachers pressing an ice pack to her newly bandaged wrist, Phantom decided to join her and flew away from his human half.

“Hey Sam, how is your hand?” He asked, eliciting a surprised jump from the goth. She quickly settled herself and returned to a neutral expression.

“Definitely sprained, which I take as a win. I don’t have to participate in the sweat and body odour factory known as sport for a little while.” She replied dryly, earning a laugh from Phantom.

“True. Not gonna lie, not having to stink all day is one of the benefits of being split.” Phantom commented. For a moment her expression sunk into concern, before quickly shifting to amused.

“You say that, but wait until you have to go fight a garbage ghost that shoots trash at you.” She jokingly warned. Phantom gave a dramatic gasp.

“How dare you jinx me like that!” He said in an over the top insulted tone. Sam chortled at his antics.

“I’m glad you’re still you. With you separating from yourself, I got nervous that it would be like last time when neither version of you felt like my Danny. I mean, not _my_ Danny… just, the Danny who I know.” Sam rambled, looking a little embarrassed. Phantom understood what she meant. He certainly didn’t feel as broken as he did last time. Last time he felt cut up, mismatched, and incomplete. This time it felt like tearing paper at the perforated line and like the coloured blocks had slotted into the right shaped holes. He could have complex thoughts that didn’t feel empty, and he was sure his human half was the same.

“I feel more like myself this time. There’s still stuff missing that I remember being there when we were one, but it feels more like a missing glove than a missing hand. Does that make sense?” He revealed, fidgeting with the peeling tape on the scaffolding. Sam gave a thoughtful ‘hmm’, and while Phantom wasn’t looking up, he could see in his peripheral vision that her eyes were shifting from Phantom to Danny.

“If you feel whole separated, aren’t you worried that you’ll have grown too much to fit back together? I mean, just look at Danny. He’s literally grown.” She asked. Phantom shifted his gaze to where his human half was playing. He was laughing as he spun away from a kid who had lunged for one of his flags. Looking at him, Danny didn’t look like a scrawny kid anymore. He looked like a professional dancer, or like one of those dudes who does parkour. He looked grown up. How fast it had happened made Phantom nervous.

“I’m scared that I’ve been holding him back.” Phantom whispered.

“What?” He tried not to wince at her concerned tone.

“What if being half-dead somehow stopped his – our body from growing as much as it was meant to? Is this sudden change just our human half catching up? If I wasn’t a part of him, would this have happened slowly over time like everyone else? _Have I been holding him back?_ ” Phantom panicked, shaking as he watch his human half thriving without him.

“Danny, you need to calm down!” Sam pleaded, sounding distressed. Snapping out of his spiral, Phantom looked around to see that a circle of frost had spread in a six foot radius around them and was spreading. He took deep breaths and closed his eyes as he tried to think of warm, calm thoughts. No matter how he tried to avoid it, he eventually thought of Danny. He thought of how comforting his touch was. He thought about how caring he was for him. He thought about how beautiful his smile was and how warm it made him feel when he knew the smile was for him and nobody else. He thought about how soft his lips were and how it felt like he would melt when they touched his. He opened his eyes with a deep sigh. While the frost had stopped spreading, it hadn’t receded.

Before he could apologise, a distant boom sounded, followed by echoes of manic laughter. Phantom made himself visible to give Sam an apologetic look, before taking off in the direction of danger.


	8. Power Shifts

Despite his conversation with Sam ending on an uncomfortable note, Phantom was happy to feel the wind in his face as he flew towards where he had heard the manic laughter. Finally, he had a chance to do some good and feel useful again. There was only so much of watching Danny be fine without him that he could take.

Arriving at the mall and entering through the hole in the wall, he wasn’t surprised to see Box Ghost going to town building a barricade out of various stock boxes from the surrounding stores. He was surprised to see that he had brought Box Lunch, who was currently terrorising the new Japanese restaurant with their own bento. Phantom winced. He hadn’t realised that she’d gotten old enough for Box Ghost to take her on her first haunt and seeing her like this only reminded him of what happened with Dan. Judging by the barricade, it didn’t look like old Boxy felt like she was completely ready to fully handle such a public haunt. Phantom sighed, figuring once he shook up Box Ghost he’d retreat with his daughter.

_This shouldn’t take long._

“Hey! “Bring your child to work day” is next month!” Phantom called out, drawing Box Ghost’s attention away from the young woman who was resisting the telekinetic pull on her new shoe box.

“Beware the terrifying duo of Box Ghost and Box Lunch! No boxed goods, edible or not, will be safe!” The ghost declared dramatically. Phantom rolled his eyes, all too familiar of what he should “beware”.

“We can do this the easy way, where you pack it in and head home right now, or we could do this the hard way and you can be completely humiliated in front of your daughter.” Phantom warned, raising his hands into a fighting stance and summoning ecto-blast energy, prepared to fire.

“No! It is _I_ who will humiliate _you_ in front of _your_ daughter!” Box Ghost snapped angrily. Phantom couldn’t help but snort.

“Great comeback, man. Really thought outside the box with that one.” Phantom teased, causing the ghost to growl with growing irritation.

“Well, get ready to think _INSIDE_ the box! Because your head is going to smash into this box!” Box Ghost yelled, flinging a rather sizable crate from his pile towards the hero. Reflexively, Phantom shot a beam of energy at the projectile, aiming to split the crate and miss him. Instead, a charged blast was released, completely evaporating the crate and continuing towards Box Ghost, whose eyes widened with shock and fear. Realising too late what was happening to dodge, the blast hit the ghost harshly in the gut, throwing him violently back and slamming him into the back wall of the Japanese restaurant. The wall gave a sickening crack and a puff of dust fell from the ceiling.

“ _Daddy!_ ” Box Lunch screamed, the floating Bento around her clattering to the floor as she zoomed over to where her father landed. Phantom gasped, looking between the prone ghost on the floor and his hands. He hadn’t meant to use that much power. He couldn’t figure out how it happened. The young ghost girl, who didn’t look any older than four, gripped onto Box Ghost’s shoulders and shook him desperately.

“Please wake up! I don’t want to fight him! I’m sorry I said I was ready! Please wake up, daddy!” She begged desperately, voice wobbling as she cried. She turned her head in Phantom’s direction and upon seeing him, whimpered and began shaking her father more fervently. Phantom panicked as he looked between the crater in Box Ghost’s torso and the sobbing girl who was terrified of him.

_Fuck! What have I done? Have I killed him?_

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to do that! I didn’t want to hurt him! I don’t want to hurt you!” He apologised, tears welling in his eyes as he floated closer to the unconscious ghost in hopes of helping. As soon as she yelped in fear, he stopped his approach. Keeping his distance, he watched the still form of the Box Ghost, begging under his breath for him to wake up.

Like a miracle, Box Ghost spasmed as he sat up wheezing. Clutching at his stomach with one hand and shielding his crying child with the other, he looked up at Phantom with a blend of confusion and absolute fear.

“You… you tried to _destroy_ me.” The ghost stated with a calm voice that dropped Phantom’s heart into his stomach.

“N-No! I wasn’t trying to destroy you! It was an accident, I swear! I’m sorry!” Phantom cried out. Box Ghost looked between Phantom and the floor underneath him and he flinched with concern. Following his line of sight, Phantom looked down and saw that frost was quickly spreading out over the floor beneath him in all directions. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to calm down on his own, Phantom took off in the direction of the only person who could help.

~

“You have some real nerve rejecting my Paulina, loser.” The voice of Dash complained from behind Danny. Turning around, he saw the blonde bully menacingly punching one fist into the palm of his other hand like an old timey cartoon of a mobster. Danny rolled his eyes at the threat.

“Let me get this straight. Your beef with me today is that I _didn’t_ flirt with your girlfriend?” Danny questioned, quirking his eyebrow up at the taller boy.

“Yeah! You think you’re too good for her or something? Nobody disses my girl and gets away with it!” Dash grunted, puffing his chest up like a gorilla. Danny was caught off guard with that reply.

_Huh._

“I have to admit, it’s kinda sweet how loyal you are to her.” Danny commented with a light chuckle, genuinely appreciating the fact that he cared more about Paulina’s feelings than about getting jealous. At the compliment, Dash’s cheeks tinted pink.

“Sh-Shut up!” He yelled, before stomping past him and Tucker towards Kwan, who was already waiting in the middle of the field. As soon as he was gone, Tucker broke into a gleeful laugh.

“Man, every interaction between you and Dash lately is gold!” Tucker said, wiping a tear from his eye. Danny chuckled and shrugged, not sure what to say. Dash was clearly running out of things to bully him for, seeing as it was getting easier to brush off anything he said or did. With any hope, he’d give up trying by the end of the year.

Once everyone had made their way to the field, Ms Tetslaff split the class up, sending the girls to play against each other while sending the boys to play in the other direction. Usually, Danny would try to weasel his way into playing with the girls for contact sports, as they were faster and better training for dodging ghosts, and also only ever hit or tackled him if they needed to for the game rather than whenever they felt like it. For once, he felt confident enough to stick with the boys. He had a feeling that it would be extra satisfying to watch the football team fall on their faces when he dodged out of their reach today with an embarrassed Dash egging them on.

As they played, he realised he was completely right. Dash was losing it as he watched Danny run, duck, and twirl away from every lunge for his flags. None of them could touch his level of agility built up from years of ghost fighting, and with the new clarity in his mind he found it leagues easier to notice anyone sneaking up behind him. As an added bonus, it felt really damn good to release all the energy that had been building up inside. He wasn’t used to having so much, considering usually it was burnt up during battle. He let out an amused laugh, catching himself actually considering joining the football team.

When a boom in the distance stops the game in its tracks, Danny whips around to see if he can spot where Phantom was. Turning just in time, he watched as Phantom took off into the sky, leaving a circle of frost where he had been on the bleachers. Danny scoffed.

_Is he showing off?_

Before he can plan on making fun of his ghost half when he next sees him, he’s distracted by Paulina rushing towards Sam with an excited look on her face, trailed by an annoyed looking Star.

“What did he say to you? Did he talk about me?” He heard her question loudly, despite how far away he stood. Star said something he couldn’t hear with an agitated look on her face and shoos her friend away from the bleachers. Star turned back to Sam and said something else with an awkward smile, and to Danny’s shock when Sam responded she did it with a soft smile.

_What is that all about?_

Making her way back to the rest of the girls, Paulina began waxing poetry about her “Ghost Boy” and how she can’t wait for him to tell her how he feels so they can have their one magical night. Danny stifled a groan, embarrassed by the memory that he used to be attracted to her. Valerie looked uncomfortable, like all she wanted to do was escape the conversation. Danny couldn’t help but empathise with her. The way Paulina went on and on about his ghost half was causing a weirdly bitter feeling to rise in him. He put it down as a protectiveness of his other half from what felt like a predator readying her talons. When Ms Tetslaff blew the whistle to signal a break, probably realising that nothing would stop the teens from gossiping about Phantom for the next five minutes away, Danny gave her a little wave to give her an out. She wore a look of relief as she darted away from Paulina towards Danny.

“Thanks, Danny. Not sure how much more I could have stomached.” She thanked, pretending to gag and getting him to laugh.

“You’d think the excitement that fuels her inner trashy romance novel would have died down by now.” Tucker commented, arriving next to Danny out of breath. Valerie sighed and shrugged, clearly not getting the appeal.

“Dude, are you seriously cool with your girlfriend clearly thirsting over other guys?” Kwan questioned, eyes going from Paulina to Dash with a doubtful expression. Dash flicked his hand dismissively.

“Phantom doesn’t count. He’s our free pass.” He replied nonchalantly. Danny felt like his brain took a dive from a high board.

“ _OUR?_ ” He blurted out, causing the attention of the rest of the class to snap to him. Danny tried to calm down as he felt himself heat up. Why was he so angry at the idea of Dash taking a shot at Phantom? Surely he’s just irritated that Dash could be so interested in someone who used to be a person he bullied every day, because jealousy would make NO sense.

“I know that look Fentini. You’re just jealous because I have a much better chance with a hero like him than you!” Dash yelled at Danny, face going read from being embarrassed again. Danny growled.

“I’m not jealous, I’m mad that you have the audacity to harass me because you think I’m gay when you are clearly attracted to guys!” Danny argued back, frustrated by the hypocrisy. Dash crossed his arms and looked away.

“Tch… it doesn’t count if it’s a ghost! They don’t have genitals.” The bully replied, mumbling awkwardly. Danny raised an eyebrow at that statement. Where the hell did he get that idea?

“What are you talking about? Phantom has a-” He started to say, before Tucker elbowed him in the side to cut him off. Unfortunately, the damage was done.

“How the _fuck_ would you know that?” Valerie questioned, looking downright disturbed by the fact that Danny knew what was in Phantom’s pants.

_Come on! Say you heard it from your parents! It’s the perfect excuse!_

“Uhh…” Was all that came out.

_Fucking brilliant._

“Phantom! He’s come back for me!” Paulina exclaimed, interrupting one of the most awkward moments of Danny’s life. Whipping his line of sight up to where she pointed, he saw his ghost half hurdling back in their direction. No… his direction. Danny panicked. Phantom was coming in too hot, there was no way he’d slow down in time to not –

Phantom crashed into Danny, throwing him harshly to the ground and shooting a pain from his tailbone up his spine. Danny tried to sit up, and Phantom immediately wrapped his legs around Danny’s hips and his arms around his shoulders, burying his face into the crook of his neck. The ghost was freezing cold to the touch and was hyperventilating in a way that made Danny’s heart lurch.

“I nearly killed him… I nearly killed Box Ghost! Right in front of his _daughter_! I couldn’t control myself. What if I had killed him?” Phantom murmured into Danny’s neck, his hold around the human tightening with anxiety. Danny twisted his head to look at Phantom as he tried to process what he’d just said. His form was distorting, shifting into how he had looked when they had woken up the night before. But Danny couldn’t find it in him to worry about that, as what Phantom had said was finally registering to him. He said he couldn’t control himself and nearly killed Box Ghost, but what did that mean? Did he get mad and try to kill him? No, he would never do that. Not Phantom. Not the boy who shook and cried at the idea of genuinely hurting someone. Danny wrapped one arm around Phantom’s chest and began stroking his back while his other hand began raking through the ghost’s white hair, hoping the touches would soothe him.

“It’s okay, Phantom. You stopped, so you did control yourself. You didn’t kill him, so he’ll be fine and back to annoying the shit out of you in no time.” Danny reassured softly. Phantom shuddered and his body relaxed, breath evening out and temperature rising. The sudden change concerned Danny. He shifted the hand in the other’s hair until it was cupping his cheek and pulled Phantom back enough to look at his face. Just as he suspected, his other half, although back to normal, had passed out in his arms.

“Oh, Phantom. What is happening to you?” Danny whispered, pulling him back in and holding him close once again. He’d have stayed there as long as Phantom needed, if it weren’t with the awkward throat clear that snapped him attention away from the ghost in his arms. Looking up, absolutely everyone in the class was staring at him with wide eyes and dropped jaws.

_Shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this feels short compared to the last chapter. I aim to have around 2000 words per chapter, but sometimes I just get to 6000 before it feels like the end of the chapter which probably messes with expectations. Oopsies!


	9. If You Can't Love Yourself...

The gaping expressions of his classmates were the eye of the storm before he was overwhelmed with what felt like a thousand questions at once. So many were coming at once, he could only make out a handful from the crowd.

“What the hell happened?”

“Did he say he killed someone?”

“Why was he changing like that?”

“Why the fuck did he go to you instead of me?” Danny refrained from rolling his eyes at Paulina’s question, as it seemed like his classmates had that handled.

“What are you talking about? Of course Phantom would pick Fenton over you. Do you really think a superhero would settle for any less?” Mikey sassed, followed by a surprising amount of sounds and nods of agreement from the other students, as if the statement checked out.

_Wait, what?_

Danny winced as he looked to Dash, expecting him to snap at the smaller male for insulting his girlfriend so casually. He was quite caught off guard to find the bully staring frozen at Danny with a stunned and conflicted expression.

“Forget about that! Danny, are you dating Phantom?” Valerie demanding, voice riddled with betrayal as her expression twisted with disbelief. Danny fought back the urge to laugh uncomfortably, knowing it wouldn’t help anything. The only problem was he couldn’t think of anything he could do to help. If he denied being in a relationship with himself (ridiculous!) he knew that would only convince everyone further that he was. If he played along he’d only open himself up to even more questions from his classmates that he’d have to make up answers to and then try to remember what he made up so the story didn’t keep changing. He needed to stall for time so he could figure something out.

“Uhh…” Was all that came out of his mouth.

_Is that my fucking vocab word of the day? What is wrong with me?!_

Luckily for Danny, salvation came in the form of Ms Tetslaff shushing the students and forcing them to back away from Danny and Phantom.

“Okay, back to work chatterboxes! You can harass Fenton outside of class time. Go!” She declared, shooing everyone off. Once the students had reluctantly scattered, she crouched next to Danny with a cautious expression.

“Are you okay? Is…he okay?” She asked, voice far softer than her usual tone.

“Landed kind of rough, but I’ll be fine. I’m not sure about Phantom though. I might have something that can help him in my locker. Could I –” A hand waving in front of him cut him off.

“You can finish early to take care of your little ghost friend. I have seen enough from you today to know you’ve picked up the game. Off you go! Chop-chop!” She stated, rising to her feet and tone returning to her usual self now that she wasn’t as worried for her student. He gave her a grateful nod, before shifting his hold on Phantom so that he could use one hand to help himself stand up while the other wound around his ghost self’s ass.

_It’s just the most practical way to hold him up, it doesn’t mean anything. Stop thinking about it!_

Danny ran as smoothly as he could back to the locker room, attempting not to jostle and disturb the sleeping ghost in his arms. Once at his locker, he settled Phantom on the ground before rummaging through his stuff to find the vial of ectoplasm that he kept on hand as emergency energy supplements. Popping the lid off, he tilted Phantom’s head back and pried his mouth open with his free hand. Ignoring how soft Phantom’s lips were, he carefully poured the bright green liquid down the ghost’s throat. After a few moments, Phantom began to glow a little brighter and he began to groan his way into consciousness. Sleepy eyes blinked out and glanced around in confusion. Danny internally scowled at himself for finding it cute. There were more important things to think about than whatever that weird thought was.

“Wha… where am I?” Phantom asked, voice mumbling from low energy.

“We’re in the locker room. You passed out after you told me you nearly killed Box Ghost.” Danny informed flatly. Phantom winced, the memory appearing to return to him.

“Oh.” Was all that came out from him.

“Yeah, _oh_. Care to explain to me what happened?” Danny questioned, shifting from kneeling in front of the ghost to sitting beside him. Phantom groaned and thumped his head backward into the lockers.

“It was awful, Danny. I only meant to shoot a beam to cut a crate in half, but I nearly blasted Box Ghost in half instead! He actually got knocked out, that’s how hard I hit him!” Phantom revealed, the emotion in his voice rising as he slumped forward and hugged his knees. Gently, Danny hushed Phantom as he snaked his hand across the ghost’s back and around his furthest shoulder.

“It might not have been as bad as you thought. I mean, we’ve seen ghosts get split in half and immediately reform with no issue. Hell, we’ve even warped holes into our body to avoid a hit.” He attempted to reassure. Phantom appeared to think about it for a moment before shaking his head.

“You didn’t see Box Lunch. She was terrified that he wouldn’t wake up.” He moaned, eyes avoiding his human half.

“But she’s a child, though. Born in the Ghost Zone too. She doesn’t understand death.” Danny countered, giving his ghost’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. Suddenly, Phantom jerked away from Danny, turning towards him with a horrified expression as he scooted backwards.

“She was terrified of me. She looked at me like I was _him_.” Phantom cried out, tears bubbling in his eyes and shoulders shaking.

_Oh._

With the first appearance of Box Lunch from this timeline combined with what happened today, no wonder Phantom’s mind went there. To Dan.

“But you’re not. You never will be.” Danny argued, inching towards the ghost only to have him flinch further away.

“How can you be so sure? The thing that made Dan a monster was losing his human half and look at us now!” Phantom exclaimed in panic, the tears now streaming down his cheeks with an oddly beautiful glow. Danny’s heart clinched in his chest at the sight.

“Hey! You haven’t lost me! I’m right here!” Danny shouted, brow furrowing with determination. Phantom turned his face away sharply and bit his lip as his eyes scrunched shut. The expression and the shuddered breathing did nothing to help the concern Danny felt for his ghost half. It looked like he was about to have a full blown panic attack. Danny quickly crawled to Phantom, closing the distance between them in a moment. He knelt between Phantom’s splayed legs and reached up to cup his hands around the ghost’s cheeks and turn his face back toward him.

“Phantom, look at me. I’m not going anywhere. We’re going to figure out what is wrong with your powers because I know without a doubt that it is not because you’re going to the dark side. There is too much of what makes us good in you, I can see it. If you can’t see it, please believe me then.” Danny declared as calmly as he could. As he stroked his thumbs over his ghost half’s cheeks, wiping away the luminescent tears, Phantom’s lids opened, revealing shimmering, stunning hyalite opal eyes that gazed into his own. He saw a flurry of emotions dance in those eyes, flickering through doubt, hopefulness, and something else he didn’t know how to label. Danny watched Phantom’s eyes trail away from his own and down towards his lips, presumably because he was thinking about the words that had left them moments ago. A pained expression flashed across Phantom’s face before his eyes shut again and shook his head for a moment. Before Danny could ask what was wrong, Phantom was leaning into Danny, wrapping his arms around him in a needy hug and burrowing his face into the crook of his neck. Danny returned the hug, letting out a deep sigh of what he assumed was relief. The fact that it felt like disappointment was confusing. Phantom had finally calmed down and now they were hugging, something they both needed. What did he have to be disappointed about?

Not wanting to linger on such thoughts, Danny pulled away from the hug and gave Phantom what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Judging by the weirdly flustered look and awkward coughing he got back from Phantom, he hadn’t done a very good job. But still, Danny was confident that his ghost half would be fine.

~

Phantom was well and truly fucked.

If the comforting touches and heart-felt speeches that came out of very kissable lips weren’t enough, Danny had to go back in for the kill with that fucking smile. Phantom was one hundred percent certain that they were never this charming, and dare he say gorgeous, when they were the one person. His made him feel so confused and downright ashamed that more and more he found himself so attracted to his human half. As much as he tried to rationalise that it was just some sort of manifestation of his desire to be complete again, he knew it wasn’t true. He had a straight up crush on Danny. He’d deny it to anybody that asked, but he couldn’t deny it to himself any longer. _Himself_ , himself, that is. It was very important to deny it to the other himself and make sure _he_ never finds out. Speaking of which, it was time to move the conversation forward so that Danny would stop with that damn smile that gave him ghost butterflies.

“D-Do you have any theories?” Phantom stammered, backing away and going back to leaning against the lockers tiredly. Having a mild mental break down really seemed to take a lot out of him. Danny squirmed, before rising to his feet and making his way back to his locker and began pulling out his clothes to get changed. Phantom winced, knowing that if Danny was making himself busy so that he wouldn’t have to make eye contact, he probably wasn’t going to like what his human half was going to say.

“Maybe… I’ve been making you weaker?” Danny suggested quietly. Phantom growled, before using the lockers to help him pull himself to his feet and staggered over to Danny, who looked like he knew what was coming.

“Danny, I know in my heart that I am stronger with you than without you.” Phantom told him with full conviction. Even if his human half had been muting or filtering his ghost powers, it didn’t mean that was making him weaker. If anything, the refined control made him stronger as a protector. Danny turned to Phantom with a warm smile and boy, was he glad he was already leaning against the wall.

“Now I am even more certain that you will never become Dan. You would never leave me to fuse with Vlad.” Danny chuckled, before shucking his shirt off. Not prepared for the sight, Phantom gasped as he ogled the human. It was the towel situation all over again. Only this time, Phantom wasn’t in denial, so nothing could stop his eyes from drinking in the sight in front of him. Just like the water droplets from the shower, the sweat that clung to Danny’s chest only served to accentuate the tone of his muscles and give him a warm and very human glow. When Danny’s eyes widened with concern, Phantom figured it was time to come up with an acceptable reason for him to gasp that had nothing to do with his narcissistic thoughts.

“What if Vlad somehow did this to us?” He asked, mentally fist pumping at the fact that what came out of his mouth made sense. Vlad was not only someone who knew their secret, but also had a history of messing around with their DNA. Danny scrunched up his face as he thought about the theory.

“That doesn’t make a lot of sense. He’s only obsessed with us because we’re a halfa like him. Why would he un-halfa us?” Danny questioned. Phantom shrugged.

“I don’t know, maybe he’s up to something and he needed us distracted?” He responded, using all his will power to keep his eyes up on Danny’s face, lest he get even more distracted. Danny thought about it for another moment, before sagging and then putting his black tee back on.

“I want to say that sounds like a reach, but I wouldn’t put it past him.” He admitted.

The sudden, shrill ringing of the bell caused both boys to flinch in surprise. Phantom felt his stomach fill with disappointment. The bell meant everyone would be coming back to the locker room to get changed and he wouldn’t be able to keep talking to him.

“We can hound him after school. Are you okay for now?” Danny said, snapping Phantom out of his sad spiral before it got too bad. Phantom gave him a nod, but as he pushed off the wall to float beside the human, he thunked back to the ground and wobbled on his feet dizzily. Danny reached out a hand and steadied him by gripping onto his shoulder.

“You need to rest. Stay quiet and invisible and everything should be fine.” Danny stated, and before Phantom could ask him what he meant, he found himself being hauled onto the human’s back, reflexively wrapping his arms around his shoulders. Dropping his visibility, Phantom kept his eyes up as Danny changed his pants, glad for how easy their new positions made avoiding gawking at the human’s form. It also felt amazing to be able to lean into Danny like this, to have the boy’s warmth spread over him in the most soothing way. What he could do without was the growing temptation to press loving kisses into the human’s neck, or to reach up and turn his face toward him so he could kiss him on the lips, or just kissing him in any way he could think of really. It would be so easy to do with him so tantalisingly close, but he had to resist or he would ruin everything.

“Oh man! You should have seen Dash’s face when Phantom crashed into you. He actually got more jealous about him than his actual girlfriend. As soon as you left everyone started roasting him so bad. You’re my hero, dude.” Tucker laughed, slapping Danny on the back. Although Phantom was sure he made himself completely intangible where Tucker’s hand went, his friend’s expression shifted into one of mild shock and confusion.

“Uh, so where did Phantom go? What was wrong?” He asked, stepping back towards his own locker to get changed back into his regular clothes. When the rest of the boys entered the locker room, Danny gave Tucker a shake of the head to signify “we’ll talk about it later.” The laughter from the members of the football team drew Phantom’s attention to them, seeing that Dash was stomping towards Danny with a furious expression while the rest ambled behind rolling their eyes.

“Come on, Fentana. Tell them you’re not dating Phantom!” Dash demanded. Phantom winced, realising what it must have looked like to everyone else.

“I’m not dating Phantom.” Danny said blankly, clearly not having the energy to deal with Dash today. Even though he knew it was true, and that it wasn’t a possibility for them to date, the statement still hurt. Dash let out a weird laugh, before turning to the other jocks and pointing harshly at Danny.

“See! What did I say? Phantom would never date someone who is such a loser!” Dash declared, words dripping with malice. Right when Phantom wanted to scoff, he felt Danny tense up and his temperature rise rapidly. A heavy frustration rose in Phantom, angry that the bully continued to treat Danny in such a horrible way even after all these years. Maybe it was time for the blonde to be taken down a notch. Knowing Danny wouldn’t be happy if he hurt Dash, he came up with another way he could get to him.

With one hand Phantom slid Danny’s shirt up to expose his stomach and hip bone, with the other he thread a hand through Danny’s hair and gripped tight enough to pull his head slightly to the side. Danny let out a gasp that reset Phantom’s brain.

_This is a brilliant idea!_

“Whoa, what’s happening with Fenton?” Kwan asked, eyes darting between Danny’s stomach and hair. Phantom pushed his hand underneath the shirt, allowing the shape of his hand to be seen through the material, before pressing loud kisses into Danny’s exposed neck. An involuntary moan escaped Danny’s lips, leaving Phantom to revel in both the sound and the flinching reactions of the jocks in front of them.

“Holy shit! Phantom’s going at him while invisible!” One of them exclaimed. Suddenly, every other conversation in the room stopped and every pair of eyes snapped onto Danny. It was at this moment that Phantom realised how short sighted this idea was.

_Oh well, better commit…_

Phantom allowed himself to become mildly visible and watched Dash’s eyes slowly trail up Danny’s stomach and neck until he made eye contact with Phantom. Dash looked as though he was about to faint, which only made Phantom grin.

“What were you saying?” He asked with a lilted voice, before gently biting into Danny’s neck and winning a shiver and a moan from the raven haired boy. Dash opened and shut his mouth as if it were dry, eyelids drooping as his pupils dilated.

“I… I have to go.” Dash mumbled in a daze, before bolting out of the locker room. The second the bully was out of the room, the students within it exploded with conversation. Returning to his previous position and invisibility, Phantom glanced around the room to see several guys exchanging money with each other.

“Nice one, Fenton!” One of the jocks cheered, before turning to get changed.

“Wait, you’re happy I humiliated Dash?” Danny questioned with a shaky voice, seeming like he was still recovering from what Phantom had just done to him. Nothing stopped Phantom from grinning with satisfaction at that. Kwan shrugging snapped Phantom’s focus back to what was happening.

“Dash has had it coming for a while now. Especially considering how he still acts like a stereotype bully from the eighties. It’s like, come on man, we know better than that now.” Kwan explained nonchalantly, as he too moved toward his own locker.

Phantom found himself caught off guard. Where did that come from? Now that he thought about it, for a while now the only people who seemed to go out of their way to bully anyone lately was Dash and Paulina. Star was still savage, but she only seemed to dish out sick burns when someone dropped the opportunity in her lap.

“Huh.” Danny let out. It seemed that they had been so busy with ghost hunting that they somehow missed a complete dynamic shift within the school, and the fact that eighty percent of their bullies seemed to have retired from the business. Danny walked over to Tucker in a daze. Their now changed friend noticed Danny’s expression and let out an amused snort.

“Nice moves back there, dude. Who knew you were smooth enough to render yourself speechless?” Tucker teased, elbowing Danny in the ribs. Phantom was glad he was invisible, because he didn’t need anyone to see that he was blushing madly at the idea of seducing Danny.

“What? No, I’m just confused. How long have the A-Listers not cared about bullying people?” Danny asked, winning a stunned look from Tucker.

“Are you kidding me? Have you really been able to pay so little attention to high school politics that you failed to notice the collapse of the A-List Empire?” Tucker questioned with disbelief, as they made their way out of the locker room and headed towards the next class.

“I guess? When did that happen?” That question won a groan from Tucker.

“When we were like, sixteen, dude. Seriously, though. I knew you were oblivious to becoming popular, but I didn’t realise you were oblivious to everything! It was a whole thing at the time!” Tucker exclaimed, exasperated. Phantom tried his best to think back two years ago, trying to remember what could have happened that made them miss something like that. Was that when that unoriginal weirdo that called himself the Goblin King was rampaging? Or was it when the Kelpies were luring people into bodies of water? Phantom winced at the realisation that so much weird shit happened in their life that he couldn’t even be sure of what happened when.

“Wait, I’m popular?” Danny asked with a bewildered tone, resulting in Tucker bursting into laughter.

“Yeah, I suppose it’s only fair I finally clue you in. But in my defense, you not knowing about your sway on people certainly helped my chances with the ladies. Whenever you obliviously turned someone down, boom! There I was to make the lovely lady feel better.” Tucker explained animatedly. Phantom felt stupid for the sick feeling rising in his stomach. Any girl that had been interested in Danny were also interested in him because they were – _are_ the same person! Nobody can steal him from himself! Being jealous was stupid!

“I…have a sway on people?” Danny echoed with disbelief. Tucker rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, of course you do! Do I really have to straight up list why? You dated not one, but two of the most beautiful girls in the school, even if it was just a short amount of time. You’ve been defending and taking hits for people from Dash for years. On several occasions during an emergency when you couldn’t get away to transform you took charge and got people to safety. I also have it on good authority from a reliable source that you have a cute face.” Tucker counted on his fingers, with a tone that made it sound like these were annoying facts.

“Who told you that?” Phantom blurted out, unable to reign in his jealousy. Tucker jumped and yelped, flinching comically away from Phantom and Danny.

“Fuck! I forgot you were there! Oh shit, if we don’t fuse you guys back, I’ll have twice as much competition!” Tucker lamented, stomping defeatedly into their next class for the day.

“Finally! What in the name of Waiting For Godot is taking everyone so long!” Mr Lancer complained as they entered the empty classroom.

_Oh right, the bell went ages ago…_

Realising that the fact that they were the first ones there meant everyone else was still talking about what happened during PE, Phantom groaned lowly. This was going to be a long school day, and they really didn’t need anything on top of preparing to confront Vlad. Even if the guy had nothing to do with what happened, as a Halfa with scientific knowledge he was unfortunately probably the most qualified for fusing them back in to one person. It was strange, but Phantom found himself both longing to be one again, and dreading it.

_Well, time to spend all day trying to unpack what that means._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, y'all! With the new job, I don't have a lot of energy for writing updates for any of my fics. But, I'm still chipping away!
> 
> Anyway, next chapter is when the plot progression really kicks it up a notch, so I hope y'all are ready


	10. The Truth Hurts

By the time the final bell rang, Danny almost didn’t have enough energy to deal with Vlad. Between various people bombarding him about his “relationship” with Phantom and trying to comprehend what had happened in the locker room, he felt more mentally drained than he’d felt in a long time. Questioning how he’d missed not being considered a loser for so long was a nice distraction for a short while, but it didn’t take long for his brain to force him to think about what happened with Phantom. He knew it was just a scheme to get back at Dash for talking shit, seeing as his own mind went to a similar tactic in his dream last night, but he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed by how much he enjoyed it. Quite vocally, too. He only hoped that Phantom assumed that he was in on the bit and was acting. Danny didn’t think he could take a pity filled apology from Phantom for accidentally leading him on.

_“I’m so sorry, Danny. I never meant to let you think I could want you like that.”_

All the other students going on about how they make such a good couple certainly didn’t help. They didn’t know that Danny was just Phantom’s boring, regular old human self. They’d never understand why the ghost would never be attracted to him. Not that Danny wanted Phantom to want him or anything. But it seemed that the idea of being unappealing hurt even if it came from someone who is just your other-worldly, weirdly hot ghost self. The sooner they could be one person again, the sooner he wouldn’t have to worry about the chance of being politely turned down by himself. Not that he was interested! It was just going to be awkward, that was all.

Phantom shifted his weight on Danny’s shoulders as he removed his bag and opened his locker to take out everything he didn’t need over the weekend. Danny wondered if Phantom was still feeling low and needed the support, or if he had remained out of comfort, but he refrained from asking in case Phantom took it as a subtle “get off” clue. The poor ghost had enough to deal with without adding the anxiety that he was bothering Danny.

“Hey Tucker, is it still fine for me to swing by tonight to pick up your LED sound system?” Danny turned to see Mikey flagging down Tucker, who had nearly made it to Danny’s locker. Tucker gave a double click and finger guns to the other nerd in response, which won a quick eye roll and a fond smile from him. Seeming to catch Danny in the corner of his eye, he turned fully towards him and approached.

“Are you sure you can’t make it tomorrow? It’s going to be a pretty big party, so everyone’s going to be there.” Mikey checked, looking carefully hopeful. Danny paused to think. Over the years he’d basically had to turn down every party invitation he’d received because he had a responsibility to patrol. He also knew that if there was underage drinking at any of the parties he probably would cave to peer pressure and join in, which would have horrible consequences if a ghost attacked and he was drunk. It had been better to just avoid the temptation all together. However, with being separated from Phantom, suddenly it all felt like a viable option for him now. He’d have to talk it through with Phantom first, though. If Phantom wanted to go but couldn’t because of their responsibilities, Danny would never agree to such an unfair arrangement. But, if Phantom didn’t care…

“I’ll try to make it.” Danny replied, hoping it was vague enough so that if he didn’t end up going nobody’s feelings would get hurt. Mikey grinned at the answer, giving a cheerful nod before pivoting away, stumbling to avoid bumping into Sam as she made her way to Danny.

“Hey Danny, you up for some Nasty Burger?” She asked with a strange nervousness he wasn’t used to seeing from her. It was also weird that she went straight for where he’d want to go, instead of trying to convince him to go to a more vegan friendly location.

“Sorry, already made plans with Phantom to go hound Vlad for answers about what’s going on with us.” He apologised, offering a sincere smile and ignoring her facial twitches on the words “plans” and “us”. A snort from Tucker pulled Danny’s attention to his other best friend.

“That’s a weird idea for date night, but you do you.” He teased, laughing at his own joke. Danny felt his cheeks heat up with embarrassment.

“Shut up, dude! You’re enjoying this way too much!” Danny reprimanded, which only made Tucker laugh more. Sam growled and crossed her arms.

“I’m so sick of everyone talking about it. They all need to get a life, seriously.” She grumbled, scowling as her eyes darted off to the side. Danny shifted on his feet uncomfortably, feeling Phantom squirm on his back presumably with a similar feeling. The gossip was annoying, but it wasn’t as bad as Sam was making it out to be. It wasn’t even about her, so why in the world was she this mad?

“Anyway, I better head off. The sooner I get interacting with Vlad out of the way, the better.” He farewelled with an awkward wave, before turning and making his way to the front of the school.

-

“Okay Phantom, before we head in there we need some sort of game plan. If Vlad is really behind this, then he’ll have some sort of mind game in plan, so we need to be ready to counter it. But, if he’s not behind this, him finding out about it could give him an edge on us, so we shouldn’t put all our cards on the table unless it’s absolutely necessary.” Danny explained as he walked briskly up the path that led to the front door of Vlad’s front door.

“Got it.” Phantom responded invisibly from the space beside Danny. With a deep breath, Danny centred himself before entering the manor. As long as they kept cool heads, nothing Vlad could do or say would get to them. He made a beeline for Vlad’s study, figuring that’s where Vlad would go if he wanted to look busy. Not that he ever was. It had been years since he was mayor, and he left most of the hard work for his company to other people. Sure enough, there he was, sitting at his desk with random papers spread over it and putting on a face that made it look like he was reading what was on them. Danny let the door to the study close loudly behind him, giving Vlad the opportunity to pretend he hadn’t noticed Danny come in and look up with a “pleasantly surprised” expression and rise to his feet.

“Daniel? Why, isn’t this a pleasant surprise!” Vlad greeted predictably. Danny rolled his eyes.

“I don’t know why you bother with the façade when we’re alone. I’m not dumb enough to think I can sneak up on you without you noticing and you know it.” He said dryly, winning a creepy grin from the elder Halfa.

“That’s fair. But I must admit, I was truly surprised when I sensed you arriving on my property. To what do I owe this unexpected visit?” Vlad replied with an all too innocent tone.

“Cut the crap, Fruit Loop. Tell us what you did to us and why.” Phantom growled, suddenly making himself visible beside Danny.

“What the fuck, Phantom? We were supposed to play it cool!” Danny complained, frowning at his ghost half with disappointment. Phantom winced, before grimacing at Danny.

“Sorry, Danny. I underestimated how annoying he would be.” He apologised, blushing green with shame. Danny rolled his eyes before turning back to Vlad. He could work on Phantom’s impulse control later. When he refocused on Vlad, he was immediately thrown off by how bad the older Halfa suddenly looked. He’s dropped his “friendly” expression for a more horrified one, face having paled several shades and making it look like the man was about to be sick.

“Vlad? Are you okay?” Danny asked with more concern than he thought he had for the man.

“No…it can’t…I can’t be too late.” Vlad mumbled in distress.

_That can’t be good._

“Too late for what?” Phantom pushed, wearing an expression of similar worry to what Danny felt. Seeming to not hear the question, Vlad collapsed backwards into his chair.

“I thought I had more time. You’d stayed together for so long, I got too comfortable. It was stupid of me! I wasted so much time! I should have listened to him.” Vlad continued to ramble in a daze.

“What do you mean? Who is “him”?” Danny asked.

“Me.” The familiar, ghastly voice that spoke from behind them caused both human and ghost to whip around to see Plasimus floating in front of the door with a frighteningly agitated expression. Before either of them could ask what was going on, Plasimus hovered past them towards Vlad with a scowl.

“I warned you that you were getting complacent, but you ignored me. Now look, it’s too late now and it’s all your fault.” The ghost growled at his human counterpart, who grew more distressed by the second.

“Can one of you explain what the fuck is going on?” Phantom exclaimed, his voice sounding half angry and half scared. Vlad’s eyes snapped into focus and glared at Phantom.

“What happened is that you’ve finally separated from your host and we never found out how you managed to stay one person!” The emotional man shouted back.

~

The words felt like a psychic attack, hitting him like a brick wall. What was that supposed to mean? Phantom knew what it sounded like it meant, but that couldn’t have been it. Vlad knew that he and Danny were the same person, so why did he call Danny his host? Why was he acting like he was expecting them to split one day?

“What are you talking about? You of all people know that Phantom and I are the same person!” Danny snapped from beside him. Both Vlad and Plasimus groaned in annoyance.

“No, I only let you think that in the hope that not knowing the truth would allow you to remain of one body and mind for longer, to give me more time to discover the secret to it. I knew if I told you the truth, it would force you apart and I’d lose my chance to learn from you.” Vlad explained, looking very irritated that he had to take time out of freaking out to go over this.

“There’s no such thing as a Halfa in the way you believe it to be. The real definition of a Halfa is when a ghost connects their soul to a living host, allowing a symbiotic relationship between the two that gives the human access to power and the ghost a foothold in the living world.” Plasimus added, equally bothered that he had to explain this to them.

Phantom felt like he was going to be sick. This had to be some sort of trick. Some sort of manipulation to drive a wedge between his human and ghost halves. He’d seen Vlad use doubles all the time to appear as Vlad and Plasimus at the same time. This can’t be any different.

“No. You can’t trick me like this. I _know_ who I am. I’m Danny. I’m just our ghost half, not some random ghost that has attached itself to him.” Phantom argued, voice shaking as he attempted to push down the sinking feeling in his chest. His statement seemed to amuse Plasimus, who broke into a sinister, bellowing laugh.

“You poor, stupid child. Did you really think you were _him_? A human boy with family and friends that love him?” The older ghost jeered. Phantom felt his breathing become shallow and panicked. He wanted to tell him to shut up, but he couldn’t form the words through the terror in his mind.

“I suppose the stupidity and the delusion was what gave you success. If either of you were smart enough to realise the truth, Daniel’s mind would have automatically ejected the foreign presence. By thinking you belonged, he never noticed that you didn’t.” Plasimus continued in a malicious tone, edging closer to Phantom. He felt colder than he’d ever felt before, like he could set off a spontaneous ice age. Suddenly, a fiery hot hand pulled him back and he was behind a very angry looking Danny.

“Shut the fuck up and stay back, asshole.” Danny warned, looking ready to throw down with the looming ghost ahead. Phantom wanted to grab Danny and run. He wanted to fly back home and burrow into his warm neck and wipe this entire conversation from his mind. But he couldn’t move. He couldn’t even reach forward and hold Danny. Plasimus huffed at the display, rolling his eyes.

“I am only speaking the truth.” He scoffed.

“So we’re just supposed to believe that we some how tricked ourselves into thinking we were one person?” Danny questioned with disbelief.

“In a way, you really were one person. We experienced the same thing, only for a far shorter amount of time. Unfortunately we were both too intelligent and aware for it to last. You have no idea how lucky you have been to experience that unity for so long!” Vlad piped up, pushing out of his seat and making his way to Plasimus’ side.

“We’ve been trying to find a way to recreate your success without needing full ignorance for the fusion to be stable. We worked so hard at first because we had no idea how much time we’d have before you figured it out.” Vlad monologued as though they’d give a shit about his plight.

“But you grew complacent, assuming that because they hadn’t split after a year that they’d never split. You thought we had all the time in the world and you wasted what time we _did_ have!” Plasimus berated, turning to Vlad with a spiteful expression. If Phantom wasn’t busy freaking the fuck out, he’d be surprised to see Vlad bursting into tears.

“I know! I ruined everything, and now we’ll never…ugh!” Vlad lamented, collapsing into Plasimus’ arms. The ghost cradled his human for a few moments, before his face snapped up to Phantom and Danny.

 ** _“GET OUT!”_** He commanded with a howl. Not wanting to stick around, Phantom let Danny grab his hand and be dragged out of the manor. It wasn’t until they’d made it to the street that Phantom found himself capable of moving. His first point of action was to curl in on himself and stare at the pavement as he tried to process what had just happened.

_I’m not really Danny, am I?_

The more he thought about it, the more he knew it was true. Their mind had always felt too crowded. It never made sense that someone could have their DNA rewritten in such a neat way just from being hit with energy. Danny had been fused with something, but not just ectoplasm, a ghost. Him. He was what the accident combined Danny with. He must have been so desperate to stay that he was willing to become completely absorbed into who Danny was. When he felt attracted to Danny, it wasn’t an attraction to himself, it was a pull towards the person he wished he was. The person he deluded himself into thinking he was.

“Phantom?” The ghost’s eyes snapped up to find the object of his delusions watching him with caring, concerned eyes. This was who he spent years believing he was. This beautiful, heroic, _living_ boy. An icy hand squeezed at his core as he stared into this human’s face as it completely hit him that this was not who he was. He was…

“I… I have no idea who I am.” Phantom whispered shakily. Danny’s face twisted into a sympathetic grimace, looking as though he was trying to find the right thing to say that would help. The tightness in his chest increased. Even now, after finding out that he’d been hosting a parasite that was basically stealing his identity, Danny still wanted to help. Was that inherent goodness ever a part of who Phantom was? Or was it just another stolen aspect?

“Everything that I remember, everything I think, everything I feel… I have no idea how much of it came from me and how much I took from you. Did I even contribute to anything we were?” Phantom continued, feeling the tears roll down his face for the second time that day. At that last part, Danny’s face blew out into a horrified expression. Was the human beginning to see what a leech he was?

“Phantom, I…” Danny started to say, but before he could get very far, his eyes began to water and his lower lip began to tremble. If Phantom had a heart, it would have broken at the sight.

“I-I’m so s-sorry! I… I n-never –” Danny stammered through tears, before Phantom cut him off by pulling him into a tight hug and let out a soft hush. He had no fucking clue what Danny would have to be sorry for, but it was clearly hard for him to get out, so whatever it was would have to wait. Danny’s arms wound around him firmly and the two of them remained there clinging to each other for what felt like ten seconds and ten hours at the same time. Phantom felt Danny’s breathing calm down and realised that his own had too. Gently, he pulled away from the human to get a look at his face. He’d stopped crying, but now he looked incredibly tired.

“Come on. Let’s get you home.” Phantom directed, pulling away completely and tilting his head in the direction of Danny’s home. He held back a wince at thinking of Fenton Works as Danny’s home and not his own. He supposed it was fair enough. It was the home of _Danny’s_ family, with Danny’s parents and sister, not his own. Did Phantom even have his own family? Would they be alive still, or would they have died long ago? Or was he born in the Ghost Zone and didn’t have any tie to humanity? Phantom didn’t even have any idea of what type of ghost he was. Were these memories about who and what he really was supposed to come back to him over time, or were they all lost forever?

A blazing warmth spread over his hand, and looking down at it led Phantom to see Danny’s hand intertwined with it. Past their hands, he saw that the ground beneath their feet was slick with ice, and a quick investigation led him to notice that the ice had been trailing and spreading during the entire time they’d been walking. He shot Danny a grateful smile, but it felt weak. The smile Danny returned looked how his own felt. He wanted nothing more than to make Danny smile for real.

As they approached Fenton Works, Phantom slipped into invisibility and hoped that Danny’s parents hadn’t switched on the ghost shield while they were at school. Entering the threshold, he let out a sigh of relief that he was able to get it. The feeling only lasted a moment before he realised that it was only a matter of time before one of them noticed it was off, and then he wouldn’t be able to enter the home he had lived in for the past four years. Sure, Danny could always just turn it off again, but how long would it take before Danny suggested that he live somewhere else? He’d mean it in the best way, but the idea of staying so far away from Danny made him anxious. Seeing Danny’s parents working on an invention at the dinner table did nothing to soothe that anxiety, and a new sense of dread filled his stomach.

_Being their son won’t protect me anymore._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's going to get worse before it gets better :|


	11. Don't Beat Yourself Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: There is a very brief, mild but still explicit scene involving masturbation in this chapter. I don't know enough about being sex repulsed to know if reading about masturbation counts, but I know everyone's different so I've marked the segment with *** before it begins and again when it is over just in case for anyone who would want to skip over it.

During the walk home, Danny started trying to think of ways to make Phantom feel better. His thought process stopped dead in its tracks when he realised he shouldn’t be trying to _make_ him feel anything. If what Phantom said was true, then he was finally in control of his own thoughts and feelings. Even after they split, everything Phantom was experiencing he was doing it through the mind set that he wasn’t his own person. How dare Danny want to take that independence from him? Just because he couldn’t stand seeing the ghost so upset didn’t give him the right to control him.

Arriving home and seeing his parents work on their latest invention designed to harm ghosts did nothing to alleviate his guilt. With a sickening realisation, it dawned on him that he had been forcing Phantom to live with people that sought to painfully destroy him, and hear about their plans for what they’d do if they finally caught him on a daily basis. Danny in his arrogance had dismissed any fears that he- _they_ had been feeling, reassuring himself that they’d never actually hurt him because he was their son. But Phantom isn’t their son. If they caught him, nothing would stop them from hurting him. Finally noticing his presence, his parents eyes snapped to him and broke into excited smiles. He could tell they wanted to explain whatever their invention did to him, and suddenly he couldn’t stand to be in the same room as them. He wouldn’t make Phantom have to hear any more threats from them. Giving a non-committal sound, Danny strafed and basically ran up the stairs, ignoring the noises of disappointment and confusion from his mother and father.

Once safe in their room, Danny locked the door before leaning on it and sighing. The time it took for Phantom to drop his invisibility was painfully long, even though it was probably only ten seconds at most. But then there he was, his beautiful indigo face flashing into visibility wearing an uncomfortable expression to match his awkward, withdrawn body language. He looked like he was waiting for Danny to say something, and he seemed nervous. A pit of dread expanded in Danny’s stomach. It really looked like Phantom was waiting for instructions that he wasn’t going to like. Danny felt dizzy again as his body heated up drastically. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around Phantom, bury his face into his cool neck, and stay like that until he felt better.

“I… need a shower.” Danny stated softly, before quickly darting out of the bedroom again and closing the door between them. As much as he wanted to be comforted by Phantom’s touch, he couldn’t use him like that. Not after knowing that he’d been using him for years. Not after seeing how uncomfortable the ghost was. If he had tried to touch him while he was in that state, he might have made Phantom panic and run away.

_Maybe Phantom would be better off if he left?_

Danny felt sick at the thought. It made sense, considering that staying under the same roof as the ones who want to harm him the most was dangerous. But as much as Danny wanted to protect Phantom, he hated the idea of him leaving. Danny growled at his own selfishness before staggering his way to the bathroom. If he couldn’t have Phantom’s touch, a cold shower would have to do.

Clumsily, he tugged off every item of clothing, only feeling a slight relief from the cool air hitting his skin. He climbed into the shower and turned the cold handle up full blast. The cold water felt good, and if he didn’t know any better he’d have thought his skin had hissed with steam as the water hit him like a damn cartoon character. It still wasn’t cold enough. It certainly wasn’t gentle like Phantom’s touch. But Danny didn’t deserve gentle. He was a selfish human that had been binding a ghost to him so he could play superhero. It was clear from the way that Phantom reverted to his true face the instant he realised the truth that the ghost wanted nothing to do with him. Danny groaned with shame, before shifting his focus onto cleaning himself, as if scrubbing the outside would get rid of the guilt within.

~

Phantom had never felt more uncomfortable in his life, if he could still call it that. Before this afternoon, this was his room. Now, it wasn’t. Did he need permission to touch anything? If he left for a bit would he need permission to come back in? If he didn’t get permission, would he need to find somewhere else to live? The idea of Danny telling him to leave made him feel nauseated. Now that the human knew he wasn’t supposed to be there, how long would it take for him to suggest him finding his own place to stay? Phantom fought back a shiver as the ice in his core pulsed anxiously.

“I… need a shower.” Danny’s soft voice cutting through the silence snapped Phantom’s attention to him, only to see the boy rush out of the room and shut the door between them suddenly. It was a clear indication not to follow him, if any. The growl he heard through the wall made him even more nervous. Scared to move an inch from the spot he hovered over, Phantom stared at the wall that separated Danny’s bedroom from the bathroom. As much as he wanted to give Danny his privacy, he wanted to make sure he was okay. He’d almost convinced himself to leave it be when the groan from the bathroom threw that self control out the window.

He zoomed over to the wall, quickly becoming invisible once more as he phased into the bathroom, just in case it was a false alarm. Sure enough, Danny didn’t seem to be hurt or in any danger as he scrubbed his body soap over his chest. Judging by the distressed look on Danny’s face, the groan must have been from anger. Although, as Phantom watched the human scrub furiously at his skin as the steam from what must be very hot water radiated off of him, he realised that it was probably out of disgust. After all, not many people would feel very good about finding out an undead stranger had been inhabiting your body for years. Still, even though he understood why Danny was feeling that way, he wished he would be gentler on his skin. If it were up to Phantom, he’d tend to Danny with the utmost care. If it were his hands cleaning that body, they would caress gently as they spread over every divot and curve. He would relish in Danny’s warmth as he slid his arms around his waist and pressed loving kisses into his neck –

Phantom’s eyes widened, both from realising where his line of thought was going, and from noticing the strain from his groin. Sure enough, the tentative touch to his crotch and the subsequent jolt of sensation told him everything he needed to know. He’d gotten an erection from watching Danny in the shower. Panicking, Phantom backed out of the bathroom and back into Danny’s bedroom. He couldn’t be hard when Danny got back from the shower. He was already disgusted enough by Phantom, they didn’t need to add Phantom’s sexual deviancy to make it any worse. Running out of time to come up with another way to calm himself down, he anxiously resigned himself to relieve himself the traditional way.

***

He scrambled for the zip at the back of his suit before peeling the top half of the suit off, blanching at the site of his alien-like skin. He didn’t know when he had reverted, but he figured it was just as well. No point pretending he wasn’t some monster, after all. Closing his eyes, he snaked a hand down his body until he found his shaft, letting out a sharp sigh of relief that he still felt normal down there. He refused to look, though. He’d much rather picture that it still looked like how Danny did down there. It didn’t take long for him to figure out that imagining he was Danny hurt too much, so he quickly switched to imagining that he was touching Danny and Danny was touching him instead. He visualised the human naked in front of him, one arm clinging to Phantom’s back, the other around his shaft, tending to it firmly, yet thoughtfully. Phantom imagined Danny leaning in to him, warm lips brushing along his neck.

_“I love you, Phantom.”_

The ghost gasped at his sudden release, eyes blowing wide open with surprise. Was that how pathetic he’d become? One imagined sentence was all it took for him? Forcing himself to look down, he was relieved to see that at some point he’d managed to rotate into a less vertical position, so the amount of glowing fluid that he hadn’t managed to catch had only landed on his stomach instead of all over Danny’s wall or floor. His relief was promptly shut down when he realised he could hear footsteps heading towards the bedroom.

***

_Shit! When did the shower turn off?_

Phantom panicked, realising that he didn’t have time to clean himself up and do his suit back up before Danny would open the door. As fast as he could without spilling anything, he grabbed the top blanket off the bed and wrapped it around himself, leaving only the head visible. As the doorknob turned, he dropped to the ground in the corner of the room, hoping to make it look like he hadn’t been doing anything the entire time.

~

Despite the shower not being enough, Danny did feel like it had helped enough to give him the courage and clarity to return to his bedroom to talk to Phantom. Just because Danny was afraid of how Phantom might feel about him doesn’t mean that he actually does. There was every chance that if he spoke to Phantom about it, the ghost would reassure him that he didn’t want to leave and that he didn’t feel trapped by him. As Danny wrapped himself in a towel, his confidence grew in thinking that Phantom would understand that if Danny had known that Phantom was another person, he would have given him all the freedom and control that he wanted.

Opening the door to his room, his optimistic hopes for a reassuring conversation crashed instantly. Phantom lay huddled in the far corner of the room, completely wrapped in their blanket with his back to the door. His stiff, uncomfortable posture screamed “do not talk to me”.

“Phantom?” Danny called out to the ghost gently, needing to be sure. Slowly, Phantom rolled onto his back and peered over at him. It only lasted for a moment before the ghost faltered and winced, whipping his eyes away from Danny as his breathing became rapid and shallow and he squirmed with obvious discomfort. The human’s heart broke at the sight. It appeared that his feared weren’t unfounded after all.

~

Phantom fought back a groan. He was already stressed from the threat of Danny finding out that he’d been masturbating in his room, but then Danny had to make it worse by coming back in only wearing a towel again. It’s like the human was trying to make him pop a boner so that he could catch him out. When Phantom heard Danny turn away and walk over to his closet, he rolled back over to face the wall. It was easier to avoid the temptation this way. In a short amount of time, he heard the human make his way over to the bed, followed by the creaking sound of the bed taking Danny’s weight.

“I’m… I’m pretty tired after everything that happened today. I imagine you are too. You don’t have to sleep on the floor. There’s enough room on the bed –”

“No!” Phantom yelped, imagining letting go of the blanket and Danny seeing the results of what he had done. Would it be a look of horror or a look of disgust he’d get from the human? Was there even a difference? Phantom tightened his hold on the blanket, curling further into himself. He didn’t deserve to sleep in a bed like a person. If he was going to act like an animal, he deserved to sleep on the floor like an animal.

~

“O-Oh. Okay then.” Danny stammered out weakly, hoping the tone of his voice didn’t reveal the way his throat was closing up as tears welled in his eyes. Apparently it did, as Phantom flinched before jolting up to look at him.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to say it like that. I just… I just need some space and time to process everything. You know?” Phantom reassured, despite his expression remaining miserable.

“O-Of course. Take as much time as you need. I’ll be right here if you need me.” Danny replied sympathetically. Of course Phantom was upset and uncomfortable. He just found out that he wasn’t who he thought he was. It should have been so obvious to him that the ghost would need time to himself to come to terms with that before he was ready to discuss how he felt about Danny. This was no time to be selfish. Phantom’s grimace shifted to a softer, more wistful expression. His glowing eyes locked on to Danny’s and the human felt transfixed.

_God, how is he still so beautiful even when he’s this sad?_

“Thank you, Danny… and thank you for, you know, letting me stay.” Phantom said shyly, eyes darting away nervously and breaking their hypnotic effect on Danny. The human boy shook his head briefly, snapping out of line of thought. Even though it was mentally easier to acknowledge that Phantom was physically attractive, knowing now that he wasn’t just another version of himself, he still decided it would be inappropriate to follow that line of thinking any further. There was no reason to suggest Phantom could ever be interested in him, so there was no point in entertaining the idea of having feelings for Phantom. Having successfully blocked off the thought, Danny finally absorbed what Phantom had said.

“Letting you stay? Phantom, I would never make you leave.” Danny promised with determination. The idea almost made him laugh. Here he was worried that he was trapping Phantom, all while Phantom was worried that Danny would ask him to leave. A weak smile made its way to Phantom’s lips, not quite reaching his eyes. There was clearly something else that was bothering him, but Danny wasn’t sure if he should try to help with it or not.

“Good night, Danny.” The ghost spoke softly. Taking the hint that he didn’t want to talk about his reaction, Danny gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile to the other boy.

“Good night, Phantom.”

~

After what felt like forever, Phantom finally heard Danny’s breathing slow down and even out enough to indicate that the boy had fallen asleep. Silently, he floated up from the ground and phased his way invisibly through the walls of the house until he found himself in the laundry room. He and Danny had gone to bed pretty early, so he had to be extremely careful not to alert the rest of the household to his presence. He made his way over to the machine that was designated for ectoplasm contaminated items and dumped the blanket in. Looking down at where he’d splattered onto his suit, he frowned before peeling it the rest of the way off along with the boxer briefs underneath that he assumed he’d also messed up. He quickly tossed the briefs in the machine, but when it came to the suit, he hesitated. He’d never taken it off before, not all the way. He felt horribly naked, more than he’d ever felt when he’d been fused with Danny. Maybe it was because the suit was that last piece of Danny that was on him. It had been Danny’s suit before the accident, and was still technically Danny’s now. Removing everything that belonged to Danny had left Phantom entirely bare. With terrifying dread, it dawned on him that there was absolutely nothing in the world that was truly his own. Not his friendships, not his bond with Jazz, not anything in his life for the past four years. Danny had shared all of that with him, but not knowingly. With a sigh, he dropped the suit into the machine, adding the anti-ecto detergent before turning it on.

Next thing he needed to do was clean the dried spunk off of his body. He made his way to the bathroom, racing past the mirror to avoid even a fleeting glance at his appearance, even though all he could see of himself whenever he was invisible was a faint image anyway. He ran the water until it was hot before getting in, revelling in the feel of its warmth. A thought occurring to him made him chuckle.

_This is my first ever solo shower._

Now that he thought about it, they’d never showered in their “Phantom” form before at all. Anything that had gotten onto the suit before was just gone the next time they transformed, and if they’d stunk at all they’d just transform back to their “Danny” form to clean themselves. Now that he didn’t had a human form, would he still get greasy hair or body odour? If he stayed naked and Danny tried to transform, would the suit reappear or would they just be naked? The laughter died in his throat as his line of thought darkened. If they transformed, would Phantom still be in control, or would Danny be less willing to give up the pilot seat now that he knows Phantom isn’t just him? Would Danny never transform again to avoid fusing with a ghost? Would Phantom never get to feel human again? Absentmindedly, he reached for Danny’s body wash and popped it open. The smell hitting his nose stopped him dead in his tracks. It smelled like Danny. He didn’t realise it would be so comforting. He poured a liberal amount into his free hand and began lathering it over his body. With the hot water heating up his hands, he could almost imagine it was Danny who was touching him.

Shaking his head, he snapped himself out of it. Danny had only been okay with being so touchy with him before because he assumed that he was a part of Danny that was missing his own body. Now that he was essentially a stranger, there was no point in even letting himself fantasize about that continuing. It would only make him long for it more. Once he was satisfied that he’d rinsed himself sufficiently, he turned off the shower and towelled himself off. He could still hear the washing machine going, but even if it would be done soon the suit would still need to be dried, so he figured he’d borrow something off of Danny. The human was so kind, understanding, and generous with him, surely if he were awake he’d offer for him to borrow something. Zipping into Danny’s room, he pulled on a fresh set of briefs, some sweatpants, and an oversized hoodie. It was his favourite hoodie that he liked to wear when he needed comfort. At least, he wanted to believe that those feelings came from him. He didn’t really have any way of knowing how many of the thoughts and feelings that he’d experienced over the last four years were ones he’d generated, and how many he’d just copied from Danny. It was too confusing, and felt like he needed a psychology degree to be able to unpack any of it. An imaginary light bulb switched on over his head. He certainly didn’t have a psych degree, but he had quick access to someone who was studying to get one.

He floated into the bathroom and knocked on the shared wall, before waiting to get permission to enter. After too long a period of silence, he knocked a little louder. Still nothing. Sticking his head through the wall, he discovered that Jazz wasn’t even in her room. It was strange; Jazz rarely went out, even on a Friday night. If she did it was usually a networking mixer that she used to get contacts in the field of psychology to bounce paper ideas off of to see if she was going in the right direction. But she hadn’t mentioned anything about one of those coming up, so where was she?

Hearing a car pull up outside the front of the house, Phantom flew back through the wall to Danny’s room where he could look out the window onto the street. A man who looked to be in his early twenties but was dressed like he was in his forties was getting out of the driver’s side of an extremely average looking car. He darted around the car to quickly open the passenger side, surprising Phantom to see Jazz climbing out with a big grin on her face. It looked like she said something teasing to him, to which he replied with a jokingly dramatic bow, which won a giggle out of Jazz. Phantom watched slack-jawed. He’d never seen Jazz act like that before, even when Johnny 13 had been hoodwinking her. She didn’t just look like she was interested in this guy, it looked like she was actually having _fun_ with him. Once they reached the front door, he could hear the conversation.

“So, this is me. A little embarrassing with the big glowing sign, I know.” Jazz sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear nervously. The guy shrugged.

“Eh, who doesn’t have an embarrassing family? At least I know I’ll never get lost on my way to pick you up on future dates.” He replied. Jazz’s eyes widened with surprise.

“Y-You want to go on more dates with me?” She asked. Phantom frowned. He didn’t understand why Jazz thought this guy wouldn’t want to see her again. The man rubbed the back of his neck, now more nervous than she’d been before.

“Sorry, that was presumptuous of me. I just had such a good time with you tonight, I got caught up imagining the next fifty dates I want to take you on that I forgot that you’d have to agree to go on them. Oh god, I’m making it worse, aren’t I?” He rambled. Jazz giggled again, taking his hand from his neck and holding it in both of hers.

“David, I would love to go on another date with you. Just promise to let me plan some of the next fifty dates we go on, okay?” She reassured fondly, winning an elated grin from David. Leaning up to him, Jazz pressed a short and sweet kiss into his cheek, before letting go of his hand and opening the door.

“Goodnight, David. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?” She farewelled from the doorway. He nodded silently, seeming to be a little stunned by the kiss. Once Jazz shut the door, he turned away and pumped a fist victoriously into the air. Phantom snorted as he watched him, before realising that now that Jazz was home, he could finally talk to her. He phased into the hallway right as she reached the door to her bedroom. The sight of him made her jump with surprise.

“Oh! Sorry Phantom, I’m so used to seeing you in the suit for a second I thought you were a ghost burglar or something. What’s up?” Jazz laughed with relief. Phantom hesitated, not sure if it was a good idea to bring up his problems. She was in such a good mood and was having fun for once. She’d been listening to his problems for the past four years, she deserved to feel normal for one night.

“So… are you going to tell me about your date with David?” He said in a teasing voice, edging closer to her with a smirk on his face. Jazz rolled her eyes, but didn’t stop smiling.

“It was wonderful, Phantom. He took me to his favourite pub and we talked for hours about emerging theories. His study focus is on Behaviourism, so it’s really interesting to hear his perspective on ghost psychology.” She described, opening her bedroom door and gesturing for him to follow her into her room.

“Wait, you were talking to him about ghost psychology on date one?” He questioned. As far as he was aware, Jazz usually avoided bringing up ghosts around people she didn’t know very well, lest they bring up “ _those crazy ghost hunting Fentons_ ”. Jazz dropped dramatically onto her bed.

“I know! I wasn’t going to bring it up, but _he_ did anyway. He was so excited when he heard Box Ghost was seen teaching a younger ghost how to haunt the mall. “It raises so many questions about the psychological development of ghosts and how society in the zone works!”, he said. How could I _not_ discuss my theories with him after that?” Jazz explained, gesticulating emphatically from her position of half lying on her bed. He was grateful for her choice of position, as it meant she couldn’t see his flinch at the mention of the Box Ghost and his daughter. Suddenly, Jazz sat up with an excited look on her face.

“You want to know the best part? He _listened_ to my theories! He found them interesting! He wanted to hear more about what I thought! Do you know how rare that is? Most guys I talk to are more interested in teaching me what they agree with, or go running for the hills when they learn what I want to write my paper on for my doctorate.” She gushed. Phantom scoffed.

“Well, that just makes him sound like the only smart guy studying psychology if he’s the only one who listens to you.” He remarked. Jazz chuckled before sighing.

“Well, I’m beat after all that talking and smiling. I’m going to get ready for bed. Was there anything you wanted to talk to me about?” Jazz announced, giving him an open in case there was something on his mind. Phantom considered opening up as planned, but decided against it. At least for tonight.

“It’s nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow. I’m glad you found such a great guy, Jazz. You deserve to have some fun in your life.” He commented sincerely. The loving smile she gave him both soothed and hurt.

“Thank you. For that, and for listening. You’re such a good brother to me, you know that right?” She complimented warmly. Suddenly, the feeling of a hand clenching at his core hit him again. For a moment there, he was just a boy having a normal conversation with his sister. But she wasn’t really his sister. He wasn’t the brother she thought he was, just an impostor who hadn’t revealed his true nature to her yet. Once she found out who he really was, all that unconditional love would be right out the window. Sure, if she only knew he wasn’t really Danny she might still want to help him, but what if she found out about the perverted thoughts he had about her baby brother? He forced a grin in response to what she’d said.

“I could always stand to hear it more.” He said in a mock smug tone, before waving goodbye and phasing out of her room. Once he was out of her sight, his expression dropped. Out of his very limited inner circle, Jazz was probably going to be the hardest one to tell the truth to. After all, she was the one he stood to lose the most with, after Danny of course. If he lost Danny, he’d lose _everything_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise things will get better for these boys...but not before it gets worse.
> 
> I'm sorry!


	12. The Truth Always Finds a Way

_Watching Phantom float towards the portal, Danny felt himself surge forward and grab onto the ghost’s wrist, stopping him in his tracks._

_“Phantom, please don’t leave!” Danny begged, attempting to tug him closer, but meeting resistance from Phantom, who was trying the back away with an uncomfortable expression._

_“Danny, you know it’s not safe for me here. Give me one good reason for me to stay.” Phantom argued, pulling at the hand on his wrist that was trapping him. Using his free hand, Danny reached forward and cupped Phantom’s cheek, turning the ghost’s face towards his own and locking eyes with him. Danny started pulling Phantom’s face towards his own, ignoring the expression of horrified realisation as their lips drew closer._

“Danny!”

At the interruption of Jazz’s voice, Danny startled awake, jolting upright in bed. As he gained awareness, he noticed he was panting and drenched in sweat. He glanced over to the corner of the room to see Phantom struggling to wake up, blinking cutely as he fought back his drowsiness. Danny couldn’t help but sigh with relief. Despite his own disappointment, it was a good thing that Phantom had turned down his offer to share the bed. If he’d been in the bed, Danny might have attempted to kiss him in his sleep again, if that dream was going in the direction he thought it was. He groaned at himself, flopping onto his back dramatically. Why did he keep dreaming about Phantom like that?

“Danny, you better wake up. You know if you sleep past noon, mom will come in here to check if you’re sick, and we can all imagine how well that will go.” Jazz warned through the closed door. This was enough to completely wake Danny up, and looking over at Phantom it seemed it had the same effect on the ghost, who was now scrambling to his feet. Now that Danny was fully awake, he was able to notice Phantom’s change in wardrobe. He was wearing their comfiest hoodie, an oversized black one that made Phantom look extremely huggable. It was downright bizarre seeing Phantom in anything but the hazmat suit. But he had to admit, he liked this. Danny must have been staring too long, because Phantom began fidgeting uncomfortably.

“Sorry for taking your clothes. I needed to wash the suit and I didn’t have anything else to wear.” Phantom apologised meekly, snapping Danny out of his stupor.

“No, it’s fine! You don’t have to apologise for that. You can borrow anything of mine you like.” Danny attempted to reassure, climbing awkwardly out of his twisted sheets. Noticing a wince from the ghost, it occurred to Danny that Phantom might prefer to have his own stuff.

“Actually, tell you what. Why don’t we go shopping today and you can pick out stuff that you like?” Danny suggested. Phantom clearly liked the idea, judging by the way his eyes lit up, although he quickly withdrew.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to be a hassle.” There was that shyness again. Danny couldn’t understand why he made Phantom so nervous. It was beginning to feel like no matter how hard he tried to gentle with him, it was never enough. Not willing to give up trying just yet, he offered Phantom a reassuring smile.

“I’m sure, and it’s definitely no hassle. You deserve to have your own stuff. Besides, I needed to go to the mall anyway to buy myself more clothes that actually fit me with my stupid late bloomer growth spurt.” Danny replied, chuckling at the last part. As he spoke, a bright smile broke across Phantom’s face, tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. Suddenly Phantom swept towards Danny, wrapping his arms around Danny’s shoulders and burying his face into the crook of Danny’s neck. A shiver ran down Danny’s spine as Phantom’s refreshing coolness washed over him. Automatically, his hands wrapped around the ghost to return the embrace, relishing in the feeling of finally holding him again.

“Thank you.” Phantom mumbled into Danny’s neck, not pulling back at all to speak. The vibration of his voice combined with the brush of lips against his skin caused Danny to shudder and grip tighter onto Phantom as his hips surged forward in a reflex of pleasure. Realising he had essentially humped Phantom, Danny scrambled to let go of Phantom and back away awkwardly.

“D-Don’t mention it. It’s the least I could do, right?” He stammered, backing into his bed and falling into a sitting position. For a few seconds, Phantom just stared at Danny as if in a daze. Right when it seemed like he wasn’t going to say anything, his lips parted.

“Danny, what you do for me, it’s way more than the least you could do. Not everyone would do this much for someone else, let alone a ghost. When I say thank you, it means more than I could possibly say.” Phantom explained, expression soft as he floated towards Danny. Looking up at the ghost from his position made him unusually nervous. Between the glowing eyes and the beautiful night sky skin, he looked so ethereal and downright hypnotic. It made Danny feel… inadequate.

“I should go take a shower.” Danny commented, breaking the spell of Phantom’s hypnotic stare as the ghost startled back in confusion.

“Again? You already showered twice yesterday.” Phantom questioned, frowning. Danny laughed awkwardly as he crawled off the other side of the bed and began making his way to the door.

“Yeah, I know. But I appear to have sweat a lot in my sleep, and I don’t want to stink up the clothes I’ll be trying on at the mall, you know?” He rationalised, giving awkward finger guns as he left the room.

~

As Phantom followed invisibly behind Danny at the mall, he was determined to be on his best behaviour. He knew he’d done something to make Danny uncomfortable earlier in the human boy’s bedroom, but wasn’t sure what. When Danny hugged him tighter and accidentally bumped Phantom in just the right place, it was like Phantom’s brain reset. The next thing he knew, Danny was scrambling to leave the room to go take yet another shower.

_Was it because I touched him?_

Phantom was sure he still had a stomach, because it was churning at the idea of Danny feeling dirty just from touching Phantom. He thought back to how Danny was behaving in his shower the night before, scrubbing furiously at his skin as if he couldn’t stand the idea of having any trace of Phantom on him. The ghost frowned in confusion. If Danny was so disgusted by him, why did he hug him back so tightly? Even more baffling, why would he offer to share the bed last night? Was that all just to be polite?

A hand on his chest snapped him out of his thoughts. Refocusing on the world around him, he saw that the hand belonged to Danny, whose expression was shifting into a satisfied smile.

“There you are. Why don’t we go in here?” Danny asked, tilting his head towards the store they were outside of. Phantom recalled it was one of Sam’s favourite stores, as it tailored to gothic and punk rock styles, was ethically sourced and manufactured, and probably most importantly, hadn’t gone mainstream like Hot Topic. He tried to remember if he liked any of the menswear, but funnily enough all he could seem to recall from inside the store was when Sam tried on this tight, low-cut Morticia Adams style dress that really showed off her figure and temporarily crashed his IQ through the floor as he got mesmerised by her cleavage.

“S-Sure.” He managed to get out, beyond grateful that Danny couldn’t see him at that moment. He had no idea if he could still blush, so finding out he could from being caught thinking about his friend’s boobs might prove to be too embarrassing to deal with. The hand still on his chest shifted, sliding down and to the side until it found his own hand. With the most delicate grip, Danny tugged Phantom into the store. The second they made skin-to-skin contact, Phantom’s core was racing. It felt so fucking _good_ to be held by Danny, to feel the warmth that radiated from him. Did this mean that Danny wasn’t repulsed by his touch? Why else would he willingly hold his hand? Inside the store, Danny suddenly stopped in his tracked and turned to face Phantom with a concerned expression. Only then did Phantom realise how loudly and quickly he’d been breathing. A look of realisation and panic flashed into Danny’s eyes, and the hand rapidly retracted away from the ghost.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” Danny apologised softly, probably not wanting to get the store clerk’s attention.

“N-No! It was fine! I’m fine!” Phantom stammered out awkwardly. Danny winced, seemingly unconvinced about Phantom’s “fineness”.

“Let’s just have a look around, okay?” The human boy suggested, before facing away and heading further into the menswear section. Phantom felt like kicking himself. If he had managed to just stay calm about holding hands of all things, he wouldn’t have lost that contact and Danny wouldn’t think he’d done something wrong. It’s not like he could just explain to Danny that he was breathing heavily from excitement not fear, then Danny might have asked him what he got so excited about, or even worse figured it out on his own. But still, he couldn’t leave Danny like this. He floated next to the human as he flicked through a rack with an unfocused expression. Phantom let himself lean into Danny’s side, forcing himself to stay calm this time.

“You didn’t make me uncomfortable. Please don’t beat yourself up thinking you did. I actually… well, what really happened was, uh… I was just realising that if I buy something here, it will be the first thing I own. It was just a bit exciting and overwhelming.” Phantom reassured on the outside, while mentally berating himself for chickening out of telling Danny the truth. He felt Danny’s body relax beside him, allowing himself some relief that what he’d said had at least helped even a little bit.

~

While it was a relief that he hadn’t scared Phantom or made him uncomfortable, Danny couldn’t help but feel stupid. Once again, he’d made something all about himself again while Phantom had something way more important on his mind. Danny shook his head, willing himself to move forward. It was more important to make this occasion a happy memory for Phantom than to dwell on embarrassing thoughts.

“Of course. I should have realised. Point out whatever you’re interested in, and I’ll carry it to the change room for you so there’s no floating clothes and –”

“Who are you talking to?” Danny jumped and turned to see that the store clerk was now standing behind them. Phantom, seeming to be just as startled, yelped and knocked several shirts off their hangers with what Danny could only assume was wild flailing. The store clerk’s eyes went wide at the sound, gaze following the falling items before bouncing back up to Danny.

“Is it a ghost?” She asked, an excited shimmer flashing into her eyes. If his gut feeling had any accuracy, he’d say that if he told the truth, she wouldn’t have a negative reaction and kick them out. The real issue would be if she got too excited and drew attention from others. A sigh from Phantom told him that the ghost was coming to a similar conclusion.

“I will become visible if you promise to not freak out, alright?” Phantom replied to the girl, who responded with a very enthusiastic nod. With that Phantom revealed himself, surprising Danny by having gone with his more “human” appearance. Instantly recognising him, the store clerk gasped and began jumping up and down on the spot, clapping with excitement.

“Oh my god! Phantom! I’ve always wanted to meet you, but I didn’t want to get too close to the ghost fights in order to get the chance.” She squealed, making a vague attempt at not being loud. Noticing that Phantom wasn’t saying anything, Danny shifted his eyes back to see that the ghost was weirdly spaced out watching this girl jump. Not so subtly, Danny elbowed Phantom in the arm, which seemed to bring the ghost back to full attention.

“I appreciate your caution. If every citizen acted like you, it would make my job a lot easier.” He responded with a warm charm. The girl beamed at his praise, not appearing to be put off at all by his delayed response.

“That’s what I was thinking! My name’s Heidi, if you or your boyfriend need any help with anything, don’t be afraid to ask!” She announced as she fixed the dropped shirts, before skipping back to the table she’d been folding clothes on earlier. While it occurred to him that he maybe should have corrected her, he figured that it probably wouldn’t have changed her mind about them.

“What is it with this place and hypnotic boobs?” Phantom mumbled, suddenly catching Danny’s attention.

“What?”

“Whah? Nothing!” After that reaction, Danny glanced back over to Heidi. Now that he was specifically looking, he did notice that the under-bust corset she was wearing was very flattering to her…well, bust. The sinking feeling in his stomach was confusing.

“Huh. Anyway… looks like you’ve got free reign around the store. That should make this way easier.” Danny commented, turning back to Phantom, who had buried his face in his hands in embarrassment since he’d looked away. Danny couldn’t help but laugh at how cute it was as he rolled his eyes.

“Come on, man. We got up to some pretty shady hormonal bullshit when we were sharing a body and brain. Ogling some girl’s chest hardly compares.” He reassured with a teasing lilt.

“Shut up.” Phantom groaned into his hands, causing Danny to laugh even harder. Not so hard though that he missed Phantom peaking out between his fingers at him, hands half concealing the ghost’s growing shy smile.

“Whatever.” Phantom mumbled, choosing to stomp past him rather than float. Once Phantom had left his line of sight, Danny felt his smile drop. He returned his gaze to Heidi, who was giggling quietly at Phantom. Danny tugged his shirt away from his neck, suddenly feeling way too warm. He wasn’t sure what about the situation was giving him such an uneasy feeling. He had a gut feeling he could trust Heidi not to say anything to anyone about Phantom being here, so it wasn’t that. Watching the girl giggle louder as she caught Phantom looking at her, Danny realised that he recognised the feeling. He was jealous. Danny furrowed his brow with confusion.

_What could I possibly be jealous of?_

He didn’t feel attracted to Heidi, so it wasn’t like he was jealous that she was giving attention to Phantom. He really couldn’t blame her for being interested in the ghost, even though he was concealing how beautiful he really was. Just the hint of his natural features shining through and shifting his borrowed face was enough to make Phantom more attractive than Danny ever expected to be. Could it be he was jealous that Phantom was returning the attention? Danny shook his head at the idea.

_It can’t be that. Phantom’s free to be interested in whoever he wants._

Danny winced as he suddenly felt his chest tighten and burn at the thought. He couldn’t understand why it hurt so much to acknowledge that. Watching Phantom carefully flick through the rack of sweaters in front of him, Danny felt himself needing to close the distance between them. Steadying his breath and wiping the sweat from his forehead, he pushed the confusing thoughts out of his mind before pacing over to the ghost. The feeling mustn’t have been jealousy, it must just be Danny getting used to Phantom having feelings that are separate from his own. He should be celebrating that with him, not standing in the corner overreacting over imagined problems.

“What do you think of these?” Phantom asked, holding up an oversized grey knitted sweater in one hand, and a light denim jacket with a woollen lining on the collar in the other. They weren’t quite what Danny would have picked for himself, but he had to admit they’d look good on Phantom. He gave a smile and a nod of approval, which won a grin from the ghost before he turned towards a shirt rack and continued his search with much more enthusiasm than before. Danny liked the new feeling in his stomach a lot more than the last. Still feeling warm, he gravitated towards the tank tops with band logos on them. He picked up a dark grey Metallica one and considered it. Sam would probably roll her eyes at how basic he was being, but he liked the design and its loose fit meant he hopefully wouldn’t overheat in it. As he draped it over his arm, something on the next rack underneath caught his eye. Inspecting closer, it was a faded black t-shirt with a Ouija board design on it. Danny picked it up, chuckling to himself.

_Wait until Phantom gets a load of this!_

~

Once the embarrassment of being a pervert wore off, Phantom began to enjoy browsing for clothes. In the past, shopping had always been so tiring and annoying, as he could never seem to figure out if he liked something enough to buy it. Now that he thought about it, that was probably because there were two people squished into one brain trying to make those decisions. Phantom smiled to himself, happy that he wasn’t creating that burden for Danny any more. He was also pretty excited to have his own clothes. He didn’t feel that bad that the money would be coming from Danny, considering it was a joint effort between them to earn the money. Being a secret superhero, they hadn’t had a stable enough schedule to have a proper after school job, but doing odd jobs around town had made them enough money, especially when it was stuff that nobody else really wanted to do, like clean ectoplasm out of carpets after an attack, or clear ectoplasm out gutters. Most of the time they were just hired for helping with minor ghost problems that people didn’t want to resort to involving his- no, _Danny’s_ dad with. Phantom let out a cold huff of air as he tried to refocus on the moment at hand. Picking up a dark pair of denim pants, he turned around to ask Danny if double denim would look stupid on him or not, but his train of thought was severely derailed when his gaze actually caught the human. As Danny flicked through the shirts he was looking at, he was absentmindedly grabbing onto the front of his shirt attempting to fan himself with it. That would have been innocent enough, if it weren’t for the fact that by pulling the shirt up, Phantom could see a sliver of skin across his stomach. As Danny turned to hold up a grey shirt, the ghost was treated to a glimpse of the human’s hip bone and Phantom struggled to hold a gasp back.

_This is so stupid! I’ve seen him naked, why is this exciting me so much?_

Unfortunately, thinking about Danny naked for even a second was all it took for Phantom to feel his ectoplasm rushing to his groin. Panicking, he bundled up everything he was holding and flew into the nearest changing room cubicle, ripping the curtain closed behind him.

“Hey Phantom, check this… wait, where are you?” Phantom heard Danny call out through the thick curtain of the changing room.

“I’m uh… just trying on some stuff.” Phantom responded, mentally cheering himself for saying something that made complete contextual sense.

“Oh, okay. I’ll wait then.” With that reply from Danny, Phantom sighed with relief. Now he had time to calm himself down before he became completely hard. He cycled his thoughts through things that would turn him off.

_Toast? No… Roadkill? Closer… Suriname toads giving birth? Ugh! Yep, okay there we go._

Phantom relaxed, glad he could calm down quickly this time. Hastily, he phased his top and pants off of him and shoved on the jeans and oversized sweater, before stepping out back into the store. Surprised to find it empty besides Heidi, he turned to see that the cubicle next to his was now closed.

“Danny?”

“Sorry, I thought I’d try on some clothes too, while I was waiting.” Danny’s voice came from behind the curtain. Before Phantom could give a sound of acknowledgement, the curtain ripped open to reveal Danny stepping out. The outfit wasn’t one that he would have chosen for himself, but damn did it look good on Danny. Understated black boots, ripped black skinny jeans with a red and black flannel tied around the waist, and a shirt with a Ouija board design on it with the sleeves rolled up a little, really showing off how beautifully and unfairly toned his arms were. Phantom felt like he was going to have a heart attack, or rather, a core attack… if that was even a thing. Danny stared at Phantom with a stunned expression before his face shifted into a smile.

“Wow Phantom, you look great!” Danny complimented warmly, causing Phantom to feel ectoplasm rushing to his cheeks.

“M-Me? You’re the one who is ho – I mean, I l-like what you picked out. It suits you.” Phantom stammered awkwardly. Danny’s smile brightened further, before turning toward the mirror up against the wall.’

“Really? I was worried it would look like I was trying to hard, but I really liked these clothes.” Danny rambled, inspecting his appearance with new found confidence. Before Phantom could reply, he heard footsteps approach.

“Wow, you two are a surprising couple. I would have thought the ghost would be the edgy one and the human would be the soft, cuddly one.” Heidi commented with a surprisingly earnest tone considering what she just said. Phantom gulped at the reminder that this girl was under the impression that he and Danny were dating. Catching Danny’s eye in the mirror, the human had a thoughtful look in his eye, as if he were quickly trying to make a decision.

~

Danny had to make a decision, and quick. If he corrected Heidi, she would no doubt spread that information all over school and people would question what yesterday was all about. But if he went along with it, he had no idea if Phantom would be as comfortable with it as he was yesterday before they found out who he really was. As he glanced to the side subtly and made eye contact with Phantom, a feeling within himself told him to go along with it. He hoped that feeling was a gut instinct, and that it was right. Putting on a big smile, he turned to face Heidi and let out a small, casual laugh.

“Yeah, you wouldn’t know it by all the fighting, but Phantom here is just the sweetest guy.” Danny stated, putting an arm around Phantom’s waist as gently as he could, hoping it wouldn’t startle him. Judging by the way Phantom’s body tensed and his core sped up, he had failed.

“Aww, you guys are the cutest!” Heidi cooed. Ignoring her, Danny turned his head to look at Phantom. Sure, the ghost was smiling, but it was clearly a forced smile, one that people made when they didn’t want anyone else to know how much they were freaking out.

_How can she not see what I’m doing to him?_

Even as he heard the girl walk away, he didn’t take his eyes off of Phantom. The smile instantly dropped, being replaced by an expression of barely concealed panic. Slowly, Phantom turned his face towards Danny, and when their eyes met he felt some panic surge within himself. Was Phantom about to tell him not to touch him? That he made the ghost uncomfortable, or worse, afraid?

A sudden buzzing from within Danny’s change room startled both boys into flinging apart from each other. Danny darted into the cubicle and scrambled to get him phone out of his pants before he missed the call. Seeing that the call was coming from Tucker, he answered immediately.

“Hey, what’s up, Tuck?” Danny greeted, forcing himself to calm down.

 _“What’s up is you went to Vlad last night for answers and haven’t given us a single update to let us know if you figured anything out, or to let us know you were still alive!”_ Crackled Sam’s frustrated voice from the phone, causing Danny to wince and hold it further from his face.

 _“Hey, chill out Sam! He’s fine, just like I said he’d be. Anyway… did Vlad tell you anything helpful?”_ Tucker chimed in, clearly not as rattled as Sam. Danny turned back towards Phantom, who was floating awkwardly outside Danny’s change room cubicle, looking like he was trying to shrink in on himself.

“He did. But it would be better to say it in person. Where are you guys?” Danny asked.

 _“We’re at the library, and you’re not going to believe who tagged along with Sam.”_ Tucker revealed with a teasing lilt.

 _“Shut the fuck up, Tuck. Danny, just get your ass over here, okay?”_ A flustered sounding Sam growled, before the call suddenly hung up. Despite not knowing what Sam was upset about, Danny knew it was better to not keep her waiting.

“Hey, would it be alright if we bought these clothes and left wearing them? We’re suddenly in a bit of a rush to be somewhere.” Danny called out to Heidi.

“No problem! Anything for the town hero!” She replied cheerfully.

~

To say that Phantom was nervous as they made their way to the library would be a massive understatement. Between that concerned and afraid look Danny was giving him when he had to hold him, and the fact that they were about to reveal to his best friends that he wasn’t who they thought he was, Phantom was on the cusp of a complete mental breakdown. If it became any harder for Danny to be around Phantom, he had no doubt that everyone who was important to him would pick Danny over him. Knowing that hurt him deeply, but it was the idea of Danny not wanting him around what was causing the intense ache in his core. Mentally, he sent a wish out into the universe that his friends, and most importantly Danny, will still want him around even a little bit.

Realising that they had reached the town’s public library before he was able to truly psych himself up for the conversation he was about to have, he felt his breathing speed up and his core whir uncontrollably. Feeling his temperature drop, he knew he was losing control again. Danny must have felt it too, as the boy stopped in his tracks and grabbed Phantom by the hand. The warmth of his touch sent waves of pleasure and comfort over him, and reflexively he returned the grip tightly.

“It will be okay, Phantom. They’ll accept you. I know they will.” Danny reassured gently. It took everything in Phantom’s power to not melt into a puddle right there.

_Why is he being so kind to me?_

Phantom wanted to push down on the thought that told him he knew exactly why Danny was being so kind. The human had no idea how Phantom felt, what he had done, or the things he had thought about doing. If he knew, he’d be repulsed and ask to never see him again. It was only a matter of time before Danny figured it out, but Phantom wanted to make this last as long as he could. Giving a nod to Danny before going invisible, the pair entered the building.

It didn’t take long to find the private study room that Tucker and Sam were in. Phantom wasn’t surprised to see that there were Magic: The Gathering cards on the table, but he was surprised to see that Star was there with them, playing against Tucker with Sam grinning over her shoulder.

“How are you already so good at this?” Tucker whined with a furrowed brow and a pout.

“I’m not, you’re just that bad at playing.” Star quipped back, before turning to Sam and laughing with her. It was strange to see the two getting along so well, but he was just glad that Sam looked like she was in a better mood than before. He didn’t think he’d be able to handle telling her the truth while she was already pissed at him. The floorboard under Danny’s feet creaked, causing the three humans already in the room to look up at the doorway.

“Danny! Finally!” Sam exclaimed, darting towards Danny until she stood right in front of him.

“I’m sorry I snapped earlier, you just had me so worried.” Phantom felt his eyebrows rise in shock at her apology. Usually it took Sam a lot longer to cool down enough to apologise for her anger.

_Star must have Jedi powers if she got Sam to calm down this much so fast._

Turning away from Danny and Sam, he realised that Star’s smile had completely dropped and was now replaced by a frustrated expression.

“I’m going to head off.” She announced with a frown. Sam snapped around to face her again.

“What? But you’re so close to winning!” She questioned with a confused expression. Phantom didn’t miss the look she gave Danny, before returning her gaze to Sam.

“Not close enough.” She mumbled, before grabbing her bag and pacing briskly out of the room. An awkward silence filled the room, until Tucker suddenly clapped and rubbed his hands together.

“Well, I’m going to count that as a win for Tucker.” Sam rolled her eyes at Tucker’s announcement.

“A forfeit is only a win on a technicality. I wouldn’t be proud of it.” She retorted dryly. It looked like neither of them were going to explain what had just happened, so Phantom decided it was time to get down to business and made himself visible.

“Whoa! I didn’t realise you could take off the hazmat suit while you were in ghost form. I always assumed it was like, fused to your body or something.” Tucker commented.

“Tuck, that’s hardly important right now. What happened with Vlad? Did you find out why you’ve split in half? ” Sam asked, looking half hopeful, half worried.

“Uh… guys, there’s been a bit of an update to our situation. A pretty big one, actually. You see, when we went to Vlad we found out that Phantom – that we, uh…” Danny rambled nervously, finding it hard to get the words out.

“I’m not really Danny!” Phantom blurted out, not able to handle the anticipation any longer. Sam and Tucker stood there, both wearing confused expressions. Phantom sighed, realising he’d have to explain further.

“We found out that there’s no such thing as a halfa as we think it is. When Danny had his accident, he never became half ghost, his mind and body were fused with a ghost that came through the portal as it opened. That was me. I was never actually Danny, I just thought I was.” He revealed, nervously folding his arms and avoiding eye contact. He didn’t want to see their reactions as it dawned on them that he’d been tricking them all along. The silence that followed was completely unbearable.

“If you’re not Danny, then who are you really?” Sam questioned, tone turning suspicious. Phantom couldn’t help but wince. He opened his mouth to admit he had no clue, but was interrupted by Danny putting a protective arm around him.

“Relax, he’s not up to anything, I promise. Even though he barely had a form before going through the portal, I know that he was already a good ghost by then.” Danny reassured seriously. For a moment Phantom could only stare at him in shock.

“H-How do you know that?” Phantom asked, snapping Danny out of his intense expression.

“What? What do you mean?” Danny responded with a confused expression.

“I can’t remember anything from before the accident. How do you know what I was like before it?” Phantom didn’t care how shaky his voice was at this point. He needed to know what Danny knew.

“Don’t you remember that dream we had the night before any of this happened?” Danny queried, brow furrowed with concern. Phantom shook his head frantically. Danny never mentioned any – wait, didn’t Jazz ask about a dream? Something about it feeling like memories that weren’t his? Phantom pulled out of Danny’s hold and backed away from him.

“Danny, have you had my memories this entire time?” Phantom demanded to know, voice rising in alarm. Why wouldn’t Danny have brought it up by now? Especially after finding out Phantom was a separate person!

“I’m sorry, Phantom! I didn’t realise it was your memories! It was confusing and everything has been so distracting. I swear I didn’t keep this from you on purpose!” Danny explained, tears quickly forming in his eyes as he reached halfway towards the ghost before stopping himself when he saw Phantom flinch at the action. Phantom darted his eyes around the room, looking at anything but Danny’s crying face. He didn’t mean to upset him, he was just scared and confused. A feeling he could see Sam and Tucker were also going through as their gaze snapped between Danny and Phantom.

“I-I promise I will find a way to give your memories back to you! Maybe if we re-fuse? Now that we know we’re not the same person, we’ll be able to be active at the same time and transfer memories between each other.” Phantom’s eyes blew wide open at Danny’s suggestion. If they shared memories, Danny would see everything that he’d done, maybe even everything he’d thought and felt. He couldn’t let that happen.

“N-No, please.” Phantom pleaded, fear rising and tightening around his core. He could tell by the panicked look in Danny’s eyes that his words had gone unheard, and that the human had made up his mind.

“I’m going ghost!” Danny cried out, then suddenly Phantom felt an energy tugging at him, forcing him into Danny’s body.

~~

Phantom felt his head move without telling it to, and Danny looked down at his hands and watched them clench without him telling them to.

_Whoa, it worked! We’re both in control. Phantom, can you hear me?_

**_Don’t let him see. Don’t let him see. Don’t let him see. Don’t let him see. Don’t let him see. Don’t let him see. Don’t let him see. Don’t let him see. Don’t let him see. Don’t let him see._ **

_What? Phantom, what do you mean? What don’t you want me to see?_

**_NO! DON’T THINK ABOUT IT! DON’T LET HIM SEE!_ **

Unfortunately for Phantom, when you are focusing so much on not thinking about something, you inevitably think about it very intensely. Danny was hit with memory after memory coming to him from Phantom. He could feel how Phantom had felt as he watched Danny get dressed. He could remember what Phantom had done while Danny had been showering. He could see through the eyes of a fully awake Phantom as he leaned in to kiss a sleeping Danny. Phantom could feel the anger that was coming from Danny in that very moment.

“GET OUT!” Phantom felt and heard his mouth shout without him telling it to, before he was suddenly and violently pushed out of their body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~Forgive me~


	13. Is It Too Late?

Once out of Danny’s body, Phantom found himself hyperventilating and his vision fading to black around the edges. This was it; the moment of truth. He was about to find out what Danny thought of him now that he’d seen his true colours.

“W-What just happened?” The sound of Tuckers voice got Phantom to turn and face him, which the ghost immediately regretted. Standing in front of Phantom with clenched fists and a heaving chest was Danny. There was so much pain and anger in his eyes, Phantom couldn’t help but immediately burst into tears.

“Danny, I –”

“Get out! I don’t want to see you!” Danny cut in with a furious growl. Phantom’s eyes widened with fear. He tried to say something, anything, but all he could let out was a pathetic whimper before turning and flying away as fast as he could.

As he frantically flew over the town, he felt pure dread fill his entire being. His absolute worst fear had been founded. Danny hated him the second he knew the truth, and now he’s lost the most important person in his life. Not only that, but he’s lost everyone else that’s important to him too. After all, it wouldn’t make sense for anyone to pick him over Danny. They’d only ever been there for him because they were under the impression that he was the friend they knew and loved, not some stranger who didn’t even have a clue who he really was.

Not being able to think clearly, Phantom flew straight back to Danny’s room and collapsed onto Danny’s bed, curling in on himself as he sobbed into the pillow that so painfully smelled of Danny. He knew he shouldn’t be there, but he had no idea where he was meant to go and it was the only place he felt safe. He figured as long as he left before Danny got back, there wouldn’t be any trouble.

“Danny? Are you back?”

At the sound of Jazz’s voice, Phantom choked on a sob. He somehow needed her and couldn’t handle the idea of talking to her. Immediately, Jazz burst into the room and rushed to him, apparently hearing him through the wall. She sat next to him and began giving frantic, yet still soothing strokes up and down his back.

“Danny! Are you hurt? What happened?” She asked in a panicked tone. At the sound of the name she called him by, he let out a small moan of distress and curled further into himself.

_We haven’t told her yet…She still thinks I’m him._

“I- I’m not…” He tried to say through his sobbing, but the pain and fear attached to what he was trying to say made it all that much harder to let out.

“It’s okay. You can tell me anything, little brother.” She encouraged in a gentle voice full of protective feelings and love that he didn’t deserve. Finally, he found the strength to push himself up and back away from her touch.

“That’s just it! I’m not your little brother!” He exclaimed, bringing his arms close to his body and digging his nails into his biceps. It was all he could do to stop the frost that was building around him from spreading any further and hurting Jazz. He wanted to look up to see her reaction, but he couldn’t bring himself to.

“Don’t say that –”

“But it’s true! I was never actually Danny! I’m just some pathetic ghost that latched itself onto him, leeching off his memories and his friendships! Now you know the truth, you’ll want me gone too!” He cried out, lifting his hands to his face to clench his hairline.

“Phantom…” She said softly, before her hands wrapped around his to pull them away from his face.

“Please look at me. I… I already knew that you weren’t Danny.” That made him look at her.

“What? But then why did you call me that earlier?” He questioned with eyes wide with shock.

“It was a reflex, sorry. Having thought of you as Danny for four years, it will be hard to get used to the truth, even though I’ve had a couple of days to wrap my head around it. The point is that I know you’re not Danny, but I also know that nothing else you said was true.” She explained with a serious, yet empathetic expression. He opened his mouth to protest but was cut off when she raised her hand to gesture that she wasn’t done.

“You talk about yourself like some sort of malicious parasite, but that isn’t true at all. You’re a hero and the last thing I’d call you was pathetic!” She reassured. Phantom shook his head and looked away.

“You can’t know that. I have no idea what type of person I was before Danny, so who’s to say that fusing with him wasn’t intentional?” Phantom argued. The room was silent, and Phantom was afraid that what he’d said had convinced her.

“When that alternate future version of you fused with Vlad’s ghost, did he immediately go evil?” She asked.

_Fuck, she thinks I’m going to go evil!_

“I- I think so. I’m not sure.” He answered, shaking from how fast his core was pulsing with panic. He risked a look at her, only to become shocked to find her smiling.

“Great. So it stands to reason that when somebody fuses with an evil ghost, they are influenced to take on those evil traits. When Danny fused with you, he didn’t become evil, he became a hero. What do you think that says about who you were?” She explained with a confident tone that she reserved for when she was pretty sure she just won an argument. To Phantom’s confusion, it may have been warranted. He couldn’t find a way to argue with what she said. The calm only lasted a moment before he remembered the last time he spoke to Danny.

“Well, just because I didn’t go in a shit person, doesn’t mean I’m not a shit person now. You don’t know what I’ve done since separating from Danny.” He redirected. Her brow quirked in confusion.

“It can’t be that bad.”

“The second Danny found out, he never wanted to see me again.” Jazz blanched at his statement, visibly taken aback by it.

“What? That can’t be right. He wouldn’t –”

“But he did! He was everything to me and now that he hates me I’ve got nothing!” Phantom cried out, frost flashing out of him and spreading around the room, causing Jazz to flinch and jump up from the bed in shock.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that!” He apologised quickly, nearly reaching for her before thinking better of it. Jazz looked around the room at the ice damage, breath slowing down.

“It’s okay Phantom, you just surprised me. I’m not hurt. Has this been happening a lot?” She eventually said. Phantom groaned as he dragged his hands down his face.

“Yes. I can’t control my powers properly, especially my ice core. Danny has been helping me, but… without him I don’t think I’ll be safe around people anymore.” He admitted. The only place safe for him would probably be the Far Frozen. Frostbyte would surely take him in, even if he’s only half of “The Great One”. Jazz sighed, before sitting on the bed again.

“Phantom, I’m one hundred percent certain that if you just talk it out with Danny, you’ll find that he doesn’t hate you. That being said… spending some time away from him might be a good thing.” Phantom’s eyes snapped back to her, scared by what she’d said.

_Is she telling me to leave?_

Something about his expression must have told Jazz to realise what he was thinking, as her eyes widened and she suddenly raised her hands into a gesture that read “I mean no harm”.

“I’m not telling you to leave! I’m just saying that if you do leave, it may be good for you. It’s clear that you’re extremely dependant on Danny, so spending time away from him could help you develop as an individual and self-regulate.” She clarified. Phantom felt his shoulders drop, not realising that he had hunched them in the first place as he thought about what she said. Those sounded like things he wanted, but the idea of being separated from Danny for a long time gave him an uncomfortable tightness in his chest.

“In any case, you should wait until you talk to Danny before deciding anything. If you’re wrong about how he feels it will feel awful to leave with such a painful misunderstanding lingering between you. If you’re right, you’ll regret leaving without a proper chance to apologise and reconcile.” Jazz added on, bringing his attention back to her. The smile she gave him was warm and understanding, which he found deeply relieving.

“Thanks Jazz. For the advice… and for still caring about me even though I’m not your brother.” Phantom thanked sincerely, hoping his tone conveyed how deeply he meant those words. For a moment, Jazz’s eyes watered, before she suddenly lunged at him and pulled him into a hug.

“Listen closely Phantom, because if you don’t, I’m going to have to repeat it until it gets into that ectoplasmic skull of yours. Just because you aren’t Danny does _not_ mean you aren’t my brother! You have been a part of my family for the past four years and that doesn’t end just because we aren’t blood related, you hear?!” She declared, voice shaking with emotion. Phantom couldn’t help but cry as he wrapped his arms around her back and clung desperately to his big sister.

~

“Dude, are you okay?” Tucker’s words cut through the tense silence. Danny turned to him and took in the concerned expressions of his two best friends. He groaned as he turned back away, too emotional to make eye contact with either of them.

“Not really.” He admitted lowly. So many emotions were bubbling inside him at that moment. Anger, betrayal, embarrassment, but mostly confusion. He wasn’t even sure confusion was an emotion, but he sure was feeling it.

“Did you want to talk about it?” Sam asked cautiously.

“Yeah, what the hell happened back there?” Tucker chimed in, voice raising in confusion. Normally, he would have loved to fill his friends in on what happened, but to do that he would have had to have processed what happened, and he did not want to do that any time soon.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Danny growled bluntly, hoping his anger would mask his fear.

“But –”

“Drop it, Tucker. He’ll talk about it when he’s ready.” Sam cut in. She offered Danny a supportive smile, which he tried to reflect back weakly.

“Fine, topic dropped. What do we want to do now, if we’re avoiding dealing with our problems?” Tucker relented. Danny was almost stunned for a moment. If he had told his fourteen-year-old self that Sam would be the one enabling him not to process his feelings and Tucker would be the vaguely more responsible one, he would have gotten a laugh and a “good one, Amorpho” from him, before immediately getting attacked. The thought made him chuckle lowly, before thinking of how to answer his friend’s question.

With everything he was feeling, he wanted nothing more but to distract himself from what had just transpired between him and Phantom. He was even willing to do something he had been avoiding doing ever since he became a hero.

“Is it too soon to go to Mikey’s party? I really just need to get drunk right now.” Danny asked, finally turning to face his friends. Tucker snorted out a short laugh.

“It won’t start for another couple of hours, and it won’t be cool to show up for another few.” He answered matter-o-factly. Danny groaned. He should have realised. Years of not being able to go to parties really made him a complete novice at them. Seeing his disappointment, Sam stepped closer to Danny with an encouraging smile.

“If you wanted something to do while we wait for the party, we could have drinks at my house and play video games.” She suggested.

“Pre-drinking before a house party? Wow, we are finally acting like real teenagers!” Tucker cheered enthusiastically. Danny put on a grin, hoping it conveyed his gratefulness to both his friends, while concealing the feelings he desperately wanted to ignore.

* * *

After sneaking into Sam’s parents’ liquor cabinet and several rounds of Ultimate Mecha Strike III that got progressively worse the more the trio drank, Tucker finally announced that it was fashionably late enough to show up at the party.

Sneaking more booze into their bags, the three of them took off on foot towards Mikey’s house, which was luckily only a short distance from Sam’s estate. Being in the same part of the neighbourhood, Danny really shouldn’t have been surprised by how nice Mikey’s house was. Not as intense as Sam’s “old money” mansion, but still quite fancy.

“Wow, drunk Danny sure is interested in architecture.” Tucker commented teasingly.

“Oh shit, was I talking out loud?” Danny asked, immediately being answered by two grinning nods.

Before they could knock on the front door, it swung open to reveal a red-faced Mikey with a wide, excited smile.

“Danny! You came!” He exclaimed far louder than necessary. Tucker cleared his throat.

“We’re here too, y’know.” He grumbled, making Danny and Sam giggle. Mikey took a big step back and gestured for them to enter.

“Come on in! If you brought drinks, you’re best to put them in the fridge now if they need it. We’re running out of room fast!” He advised, before wandering off at the sound of someone shouting his name from the other room.

Standing in the doorway, Danny felt his heart racing. Here he was, at a real-life high school party that he was invited to. He was drunk and without a care in the world, with no responsibilities or ghosts to worry about –

Suddenly, the thought of ghost brought a vision of beautiful green eyes to his mind. He shook the thought out of his head, before pacing further into the house to find something to distract him.

“Hey! It’s Fenton!” Turning to face the sound of the voice, he saw Kwan and a group of footballers gathering around a ping pong table. The rosy tint in Kwan’s cheeks and the delighted smile brought a warm feeling in Danny’s stomach. Before the jock could even gesture for him to come over, Danny found himself gravitating in his direction.

“You up for some beer pong? You can be on my team!” Kwan offered. Danny chuckled.

“Sure, but I’m warning you that I am already pretty drunk, so my aim is probably shit.” He warned, winning a light laugh from the group of jocks.

“All good, bro! That just means an even playing field!” A footballer he couldn’t remember the name of called out, words slurring together slightly.

Danny turned to ask Sam and Tucker if they wanted to play, to find that they had only just caught up to him.

“Do you guys want to play?” He asked. Sam rolled her eyes.

“Ugh, no thank you. I hate beer, and they probably don’t have a vegan friendly one, either.” She replied. Danny did a double take.

“Wait, beer can be not vegan? How?” He asked, very confused. Before she could answer, Danny felt himself being pushed toward the ping pong table by Tucker.

“Come on dude. You know she won’t stop once she gets started.” With a shrug, Danny returned his focus to the group of footballers.

“Alright, let’s do this! Now… how do you play?”

* * *

Danny wasn’t sure how, but he managed to be insanely good at beer pong, quickly annihilating Tucker and the other team and winning an uproar in cheers from his own team.

Learning how to aim while losing blood must have been good training for this very moment.

Busy chuckling at his own thoughts, Danny was caught off guard when he was suddenly swept into a bear hug by Kwan.

“That was legendary, bro! Seriously, is there nothing I can say to convince you to join the football team?” The boy gushed, ruffling a hand through Danny’s hair and messing it up even further.

“Yeah, especially considering sign ups are well and truly over and this is our final year?” Danny replied, not sure whether to return the hug or not. The contact certainly felt nice, but there was something this was just… off about it. Maybe it was the fact that Kwan seemed to be running hot too, so there was no cooling relief like when he was holding Phanto –

No. He wasn’t letting himself think about him. It hurt too much.

“Oh, right. My bad.” Kwan laughed, pulling away from Danny. He had to admit that the jock was quite handsome, and the glistening of his sweat was weirdly mesmerising.

“Wow, dude. You sure are hot.”

“WHAT?” Danny exclaimed, not sure if his line of thinking had made him hallucinate hearing that or if it had actually happened. Kwan laughed again.

“I meant your temperature, bro. Are you coming down with something?” At that question, Tucker jumped into the conversation, wrapping an arm around his best friend.

“Nah, he’s fine. He’s just running warm because of his growth spurt, that’s all.” Tucker explained, with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“That checks out. You did seem to fit four years of growing into like, three days. Why don’t you have one of my rum and cokes to cool down? They’re in the fridge door!” Kwan offered, before waving and wondering back to the footballers.

“Danny, are you alright? You really are burning up…” Tucker commented, voice laced with concerned. Danny sighed before slinking out from under Tucker’s arm and stomping towards the kitchen.

“Look, I don’t want to talk about how I’m feeling, I just want to drink until I can’t feel my fingers, okay?” If he couldn’t feel his fingers, maybe he wouldn’t remember how Phantom felt underneath them. Maybe he wouldn’t want to run them through his ghostly hair and relish in how soft it was.

“Whoa, take it easy, okay buddy? I don’t want you getting hurt.” Tucker advised; voice laced with concern. While Danny appreciated that Tucker cared, he was in no mood to be lectured, so he ignored the warning and continued his path towards the fridge and grabbed one of Kwan’s cans. When he was halfway through downing it, revelling in the cooling sensation, he heard a sigh come from his friend.

“I’m going to go find Sam. I think I need her help with this.” He admitted reluctantly. Danny huffed with indignation.

“Fine, go get her. Neither of you will be able to stop me from having fun tonight.” He scoffed. Hearing a surprising chuckle from a new voice, Danny pivoted suddenly toward the source of the sound to see Spike leaning in the doorway.

“Damn, Danny. I am loving your new look on you. Have you ever thought about eye liner? I think it would look awesome on you.” Spike commented, eyes tracing up and down Danny. For a moment, the blue-eyed boy shivered under the gaze, before offering a non-committal shrug.

“Come with me, I’m going to put some on you now.” With that, the punk boy had grabbed Danny’s free arm and tugged him towards what looked like an entertainment room, before pushing Danny onto a fairly large couch and stepping out of view. Quickly he returned with a bag and was pulling out an eyeliner pencil. Any concerns about getting pink eye from sharing the pencil immediately evaporated the second Spike perched himself on Danny’s lap. The pressure gave him an instant flashback to the times Phantom was in his lap.

“Sorry, this is just the easiest way to do this.” Spike apologised, a blush rising in his cheeks.

“I bet you say that to all the boys.” Danny was pleased with the laugh that quip won from the punk boy. Quickly, Spike stilled again and continued drawing along Danny’s lash line.

“With lines like that, it’s no wonder Punny Phantom chose you.” Danny couldn’t help but stiffen at the mention of Phantom. Spike leaned back to look at his work, only to frown as he noticed something.

“Uh oh, did something happen between the two of you?” At the punk’s concerned question, Danny groaned and realised that he must have been grimacing.

“Sort of? I don’t want to talk about it.” He mumbled, looking down and away from the boy in his lap. Suddenly, a hand pressed lightly into his cheek and turned his face back up to Spike.

“Hey…if you ever want to talk, or _not_ talk… I’m here.” The punk boy offered, eyes lilting on the words “not talk”.

As Spike leaned closer in towards Danny’s face, it occurred to Danny that the guy might be into him. He was going slow, seeming to give Danny an opportunity to stop him. Feeling his heart rate increase, he wasn’t sure if he wanted him to stop or not. The guy was pretty cute and he seemed like a decent enough person having calmed down a lot from their freshman year, but there was something missing.

Before Danny had to make a decision, the door to the room slammed open, causing both boys to jolt in shock. Peering around Spike, Danny saw a very drunk Sam standing in the threshold, hand still on the door with an angry expression on her face.

“I have to go.” Spike said abruptly, scrambling off of Danny’s lap and pushing past Sam, revealing that she had Tucker and Starr behind her.

“What were you doing in here?” Sam asked with a scowl. Danny gulped nervously, not sure what he did wrong.

“Spike was putting eye liner on me. Do you like it?” He replied, hoping his nervous smile would be enough to smooth out her agitated mood. Sam narrowed her eyes, as she scrutinised his appearance, before a strong blush spread across her cheeks.

“Y-Yes.” She mumbled. For a few moments an awkward silence hung in the air, as Danny waited for anyone to say anything. Eventually, Starr groaned before pushing Sam toward Danny.

“For crying out loud, I thought you were going to confess, not stare awkwardly at him.” The blonde complained. Sam hissed lowly, her blush getting ten times worse as she staggered toward him. Danny was thrown off by what Starr had said.

“Confess? Do you mean like, to murder, or…?” He asked cautiously, trailing off when Sam stopped right in front of him. Either way, he was nervous for whatever she was going to say. She opened and shut her mouth a few times, before scrunching her face up and turning back towards Starr and Tucker.

“I can’t do this! It’s too hard!” She complained, earning an eye roll from them both. Seeing how distressed she was, Danny reached forward and took Sam’s hand gently, the touch getting her to whip back around to face him.

“You don’t have to be nervous, Sam. You’re one of my best friends; you can tell me anything and I’ll still want to be your friend.” He tried to reassure. Unfortunately it seemed to fail, as she let out a frustrated groan.

“That’s the problem! I’ve always just been a friend, but I don’t want to be!” She exclaimed almost angrily. Danny couldn’t help but flinch, releasing her hand as he leaned away from her.

“Y-You don’t want to be friends with me anymore?” He asked, feeling tears begin to well in his eyes. The groan from every person in the room was Danny’s only warning, before Sam suddenly dropped herself onto his lap and pull herself in to his body until their lips met in an intense connection. It was at this point it clicked for Danny that Sam had romantic feelings for him.

As she gripped tightly into his shoulders with one hand and raked through his hair with the other, he took the moment to contemplate how the situation made him feel. He knew he should feel amazing; Sam was beautiful and someone he was very close with, not to mention the crush he’d had on her for the past four years. Theoretically, this was everything he should want and he should be satisfied.

The only problem? He couldn’t feel any of that. He tried kissing her back. He tried smoothing his hands over her waist. He even tried grinding into her. Nothing. Frustrated, he pulled away from her and groaned as he slapped himself in the face and leaned back into the couch.

“Ugh! What is wrong with me? Why can’t I just do this?” He mumbled, tears welling in his eyes. Why couldn’t his body react like it had with Phantom? Or even how he’d felt a minute ago with Spike in this same position. A scoff brought his attention back to the girl in front of him.

“I can’t be _that_ bad at kissing.” Sam grumbled, crossing her arms defensively.

“Sam, I don’t think you did anything wrong. He’s just gay.” Starr interjected before Danny could open his mouth.

“What? No, I’m bi. I’ve had feelings for girls before, I swear! I even had a crush on Sam for like, four years! I don’t know why I’m ruining this!” Danny cried out. The irritated look in Sam’s eyes melted into one of sympathy as she slid off of Danny’s lap to sit next to him.

“It’s okay Danny. Sexual orientation can change, and crushes fade. I’m just sad I missed my chance.” She reassured, taking his hand comfortingly.

“But how did it change so fast? I swear a week ago Tucker caught me with a boner when you were picking up litter in a mini skirt.” Danny argued, before breaking eye contact with Sam to look at Tucker, pleading with his face for his friend to back him up. Seeing the thoughtful expression on his face made Danny’s stomach sink.

“Danny… I think those might have been Phantom’s feelings.” At the sound of Tucker mentioning the name, it all made sense. He’d always assumed he only started getting interested in girls after the accident because he’d only just reached that part of puberty, but what if it _was_ because Phantom was the one who was attracted to girls? It would certainly explain why he hadn’t felt anything for any girls since they split. A weight lifted off of Danny, from both understanding himself better, and for the knowledge that Phantom was just as much in control when they were fused as he was. He let out a relieved laugh.

“So I wasn’t controlling him this whole time! He still had free will!” He exclaimed happily. He couldn’t wait to tell the ghost the good news.

“Uh… now that we can mention him without you losing it, can you please explain what the fuck happened back at the library?” Tucker enquired, making his way deeper into the room and sitting on a recliner. Danny found himself off guard, suddenly remembering that he was mad at Phantom.

“Ugh, don’t even get me started! He full on let me believe I was this perverted asshole that didn’t deserve a chance with him, but no! Turns out he was only acting weird because he _did_ have feelings for me and was too much of a coward to tell me the truth! If he had just told me he was awake when I kissed him in my sleep then I wouldn’t have spent this entire time agonising over what a bad person I was!” Danny complained. As he spoke, it became very clear to him that the entire time he’d spent with Phantom as separate people, he’d been repressing his own feelings for the ghost to the point of almost being unaware of them. Seeing gears turn in Sam’s mind, he waited for her to speak.

“So, the problem was that he didn’t make it clear how he felt, which made you feel like he couldn’t love you?” Sam questioned, to which Danny nodded emphatically in response.

“Right… and how is that any different to what you are doing now?” She continued, stopping Danny dead in his tracks.

“W-Wait, what?”

“Come on dude, you had a look inside his mind and the first thing you did was tell him to fuck off, essentially. As if that didn’t tell him you aren’t interested. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if he thought you never wanted to see him again at all!” Tucker explained, rolling his eyes. Danny felt his own eyes widen with realisation and despair.

“Shit! I only meant I need space to cool down while I was mad at him! He probably thinks that I hate him! What if he runs away to the Ghost Zone? I have to go home and tell him the truth!” Danny exclaimed in a panic, before jolting to his feet and dashed out of the room.

“What the fuck was that all about?” was the last thing he heard from the room before he darted his way through the house and back onto the street.

Thanks to his increased speed and endurance, the sprint home was in record time, and luckily he had managed to sober up in that time. He wanted to talk to Phantom with as clear a mind as he could, so that he could tell Phantom how he felt without there being any more confusion between them. As silently as he could, he opened the front door. Luckily, he could hear his parents tinkering away frantically in the lab, so he didn’t have to worry about them slowing him down. Unable to slow his heart rate down as he climbed up the stairs, he focused on slowing his breathing and on what he was going to say.

_“Don’t worry Phantom! I don’t think you’re a pervert! I’d probably watch you shower, if given the opportunity.” No, no, no… that doesn’t sound right. Just keep it simple and say you don’t hate him!_

Figuring that was a good place to start, he took one last deep breath before opening the door to his bedroom.

To find it empty.

Disappointed, Danny walked into the room and looked around. The only sign that anyone had been in here since they’d left earlier today was that the computer was now on. He paced over to the screen to see a folder open with a single video file in it labelled “Goodbye Danny”. Nervously, he tapped on the file and the video began playing. On screen, Phantom was stepping away from the screen and steadying his breath before looking straight into the camera. It broke Danny's heart to be able to tell that he'd been crying.

_“Hey Danny. By the time you’ll be watching this, I’ll have already gone into the Ghost Zone. I know Jazz said I should wait to talk to you before I go, but I think seeing you would hurt too much. When you told me to leave, I didn’t know who I would be without you. I… I need to be someone on my own, but I can’t do that if I stay with you. When I feel like I’m ready, I’ll come back to see you. But I’m not sure how long that will take, or if I’ll still feel the same way about you. I just want you to know that I’m sorry for what I did, and I’m sorry I let you down. I hope you find someone who deserves you. Goodbye Danny.”_

With that, the video ended on Phantom leaning forward to stop recording, and Danny found himself as frozen as the frame on screen.

He was too late; Phantom had left him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooooooohhhh nooooooooo I made myself sad :(


End file.
